HOW TO

SHOP THE
VINTAGE
FASHION BOOM
THE RETURN
OF RICKY
MARTIN
22 WAYS TO
WEAR DENIM
IN 2024
CAN THE
SAUDIS BUY
SOCCER?

The Man of the Moment

CILLIAN
MURPHY
dior boutiques 800.929.dior (3467) – dior.com
 CONTENTS

March
GQ World Behind the Scenes
With the People Who
Make GQ
The Drops: D R EW S TA RK EY Can Help Revive
Your Style This Spring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Contributor
Watches: Finally, Women Are Breaking Up
One of Luxury’s Stuffiest Boys’ Clubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Captain K Y L IA N M BA P P É .............................. 42

How Our Legacy Became the Biggest Little

GREGORY HARRIS
Fashion Brand in the World............................ 46 Photographer
When it comes to cover star Cillian
Murphy, “he’s reassuringly normal,” says
Gregory Harris, who’s also photographed
Christian Bale, Future, Ryan Gosling,
Features and more for GQ. This time out, Harris
turned up the volume on the shoot,
literally, with the help of the Rolling
Stones’ Exile on Main St. “Luckily, Cillian
Cover Story: C IL L IA N M U R P H Y ....................... 54 was a big fan of that album,” he says,
“so we played it on set to set the mood.”

How to Shop Fashion’s Vintage Boom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

GREGORY HARRIS: MARIA GORDILLO/COURTESY OF GREGORY HARRIS. OFFICE GRAILS: COURTESY OF SUBJECTS.
The Full R I C K Y M A RT IN ................................ 76
→

Can the Saudis Buy Soccer?........... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Denim’s New Age......................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

On the Cover
Photograph by Gregory Harris. Styled by
George Cortina. Shirt and pants by Versace.
Tank top by Calvin Klein. Belt from Kincaid
Archive Malibu. Socks by Uniqlo. Watch and
bracelet (on left wrist, middle and top) and →
bracelets (on right wrist, middle) from FD CAROLINA
GONZALEZ
Gallery. Necklaces (top and middle) and
bracelets (on right wrist, top and bottom) by
Platt Boutique Jewelry. Necklace (bottom) and GQ US
ring (on ring finger), his own. Bangle
(on left wrist, bottom), by Belperron.
Ring (on left pinkie) by TenThousandThings.
Rings (on right pinkie) by Graff.

1 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
Bold Verso Chronograph

ST YLE THAT TR ANSCENDS TIME

SWISS MADE SINCE 1881
 CONTENTS

March

ST YLIST, GEORGE CORTINA.

For our cover story on Cillian Murphy, see page 54.

Robe by Ralph Lauren Purple Label. Shirt by Van Heusen, from Front General Store. Pants by The Row. Belt from
Kincaid Archive Malibu. Necklace (top) by Atra Nova by Sheila B. Watch, necklaces (middle, bottom), and bracelet (top)
from FD Gallery. Bangle (bottom) by Belperron. Ring (on ring finger), his own. Ring (on pinkie) by TenThousandThings.

2 0 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H B Y G R E G O R Y H A R R I S
 CONTENTS

March

ST YLIST, BR ANDON TAN.

For our story on Ricky Martin, see page 76.

Shirt by Dior Men. Scarf by Charvet.

2 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H B Y E R I C R A Y D A V I D S O N
 GQ now is operating in Web3.
Join the conversation on Discord.
INTRODUCING THE FIRST XU MEEN
MCM MAVERICK
 38
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World
ays to
Drops
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DREW STARKEY WON’T
KISS AND TELL
GROOMING, MELISSA DEZ AR ATE USING ANDIS. TAILORING, KSENIA GOLUB.

Actor Drew Starkey blew up SUITED AND

p

as hotheaded Rafe Cameron REBOOTED

in Netflix’s teen-drama It seems like every suit
designer lately has
pandemic hit Outer Banks, Giorgio Armani’s
which somehow led to… ’90s-era tailoring—fluid,
r

an unexpected breakfast big lapels, built to exude

date with star-making director power—on their mood
Luca Guadagnino. “I was boards. Now, the maestro
in g

like, What the fuck?” says himself is revisiting the

the 30-year-old. Breakfast led flowy suiting he invented,
and doing it better than
to Starkey’s next big project:
anyone else.
portraying the object of
Daniel Craig’s obsession in Blazer, shirt,
Guadagnino’s Queer, based on pants, tie,
William S. Burroughs’s pocket square,
post–World War II tale of two and glasses by
American expats in Mexico Giorgio Armani.
City. (The movie doesn’t have
By

Shoes by Toga
a release date yet.) During Virilis. Socks
YA

filming, Starkey and Craig by Comme Si.

jumped right into movement
N

Earring, his
-Y
G

rehearsals. “We just got to own. Necklace

know each other really IG
OH (worn at waist)
quickly. Really, really quickly.” by Tiffany & Co.
—EILEEN CART TER

P H O T O G R A P H B Y B O B B Y D O H E R T Y
S T Y L E D B Y H A L E Y G I L B R E A T H M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 2 9
 007 O’CLOCK
From its inky carbon-
coated steel case to its
NOTHING UP YOUR menacing red-tipped
SLEEVES crown, everything about
This mod striped Marni Dior Timepieces’s
blazer can be worn over latest Chiffre Rouge
your shoulders like a watch (including the
cape, arms poking out name) feels tailor-made
through the split-and- for a superspy ($7,900).
TEMPORARY fraying seams of the sides
TATTOOS and sleeves ($2,600).
You could spend
thousands of dollars
and untold painful hours
accruing a torso full
of sick tattoos—or
you can just cop this
inked-up Balenciaga
zip hoodie ($1,350).

WATER SHOES
THE ZIPPY ZIP-UP WITH DRIP
Australian-born, London- They’re built like gorpy
trained, Madrid-based kicks, but the pearl-
designer Edward and-crystal charms on
Cuming is quickly Simone Rocha’s new
making a name for Crocs collab make it
his namesake label on clear these are for hiking
the strengths of his down city streets ($200).
slouchy, sensual knitwear
and clever command of
color ($600).

VINTAGE SWEATS
To celebrate his 10th
STAR-MAKING anniversary at Coach,
SHADES designer Stuart Vevers
These vibey frames by paid tribute to his
Thistles—the eyewear favorite New York
line from NYC-based haunts—including
stylist and photographer the 74-year-old Upper
Thistle Brown—draw from East Side steakhouse
a pair favored by Jackie O Donohue’s, whose logo
in the late ’60s ($275). he reproduced on this
exquisitely worn-in
sweatsuit (sweatshirt,
$195; sweatpants, $250).

TWO-WAY TOTE
Consider this reversible
canvas MCM bag your
new mood ring: light
YEE-HORNY
and natural on one side,
Between the sumptuous
rough-and-moody black
suede and the skin-
on the other ($699).
baring slits on the chest,
it’s tough to imagine a
sexier shirt than this
Commission Western
snap-front ($1,695).
DOWNTOWN
DENIM
To kick off the rebooted
Helmut Lang, creative
director Peter Do GREEN MEANS STUDENT
chopped up the label’s GO WILD BECOMES MASTER
legendary 1998 New The trail-sandal wave is Margaret Howell
York taxi ads, which in its chaotic good phase, somehow makes quaint
BALENCIAGA AND SACAI: COURTESY OF THE BRANDS.

he emblazoned across as evidenced by this British classics feel

pieces like these stout
ST YLIST, BARBAR A EISEN AT MARK EDWARD INC.

minty Versace pair exquisitely elevated, like

patchwork jeans ($495). gussied up with shiny calf this wide-striped, muted-
DIOR: COURTESY OF DIOR TIMEPIECES. PROP

leather ($850). palette revamp of the

preppy repp tie ($180).

WELCOME TO
THE O.C.
Remember when board
shorts owned beaches in
the 2000s? So does Miu
Miu, which gave a silky
sheen to the surf-brah
staple. Don’t forget some
undies (briefs, $925;
shorts, $1,750).

3 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H S B Y B O W E N F E R N I E
 RIPLEY’S BELIEVE
IT OR NOT
Look close and you’ll CAT POWER
realize that the dark floral In keeping with Saint
print on Prada’s latest Laurent by Anthony
Hawaiian shirt looks a lot Vaccarello’s rock star
like the nightmare-fuel MO, this ferocious taffeta
work of Alien creature trench seems built for a
designer H.R. Giger POSTMODERN multiday, multicontinent
(price upon request). TICKER bender ($6,100).
The ceramic-and-white-
gold Richard Mille
RM 07-01 timepiece is a
geometric, pastel-happy
homage to the Memphis
MAKE ELTON design movement of
1980s Italy ($205,000). SUPERSIZED ICE
PROUD
The jewelry of right now
Sometimes you need
is unapologetically big
a pair of sunglasses that
and bold, like these
generate more glare
heavyweight diamond-
than they block, like
studded David Yurman
these Swarovski-crystal-
chain bracelets in yellow
encrusted Loewe
and white gold (left,
shades ($550). ISN’T THAT $65,000; right, $50,000).
PRECIOUS?
Your grandma’s brooch
collection has nothing
on this showstopping
Dior Men polo,
bedazzled with dozens
of dangly polished
gemstones ($65,000).

TWO BECOME ONE

Sacai founder Chitose
Abe, queen of the freaky
fashion mash-up,
channeled her mad
A VESTED science into a Carhartt
INTEREST piece that surgically
No matter your combines the Detroit
headspace, pulling on brand’s iconic canvas
this sleeveless chore coat with a rakish
Bally leather flight blazer ($1,190).
jacket will make you
feel like a world-
beating badass ($3,050).

MONSTER BUCKAROO
MASH-UP BOOTS
From his early-aughts Lucchese has turned
trucker caps to that out the Wild West’s
towering fedora, wildest boots since
Pharrell knows a 1883—and this rose-
statement hat. Now the A CARRYALL WITH embroidered pair, cooked
Louis Vuitton Men’s CHARACTER up in a collab with country
creative director has This leather Givenchy star Parker McCollum,
applied his expertise Voyou crossbody bag prove the brand’s not
to this Frankensteined doesn’t just look like a slowing down ($2,995).
checkerboard beanie thrifted grail—it’s made
($705). from actual vintage
leather, which means all
the cracks and bald spots
were earned the hard
way ($2,790).

WORLD-
CHAMPION DENIM
As if Eckhaus Latta’s
gold-toned jeans didn’t
already deserve the
number one spot in your
rotation, they also fit like
a dream ($545).

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 3 3
 GQ World
Drops

RED-BLOODED
BELTS
When you need something
PROP ST YLIST, SUZY ZIET ZMANN.

all-American and built

to last, you go to Polo
Ralph Lauren. The
label’s timeless leather
belts cover every size,
shape, and dress code—
from beefy suede born
for cinching denim to
plaque-buckle styles that
play nice with a suit (from
top, $78, $150, $95, $148,
$90, $148, and $125).

3 4 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H S B Y B O W E N F E R N I E
The only podcast that takes you
inside the world of Vogue

HOSTED BY CHIOMA NNADI

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 GQ World
Drops

CIRCLE GETS THE

SQUARE
To mark the centennial
of Cartier’s iconic
Trinity de Cartier line,
PROP ST YLIST, SUZY ZIET ZMANN.

beloved by Old Hollywood

royalty (Gary Cooper,
Grace Kelly) and newer
royalty royalty (Kate
Middleton), the Parisian
jeweler has rejiggered
the interlocking rose-,
yellow-, and white-gold
bands—in both bracelet
and ring form—with
a fresh squared-off shape
(bracelet, $18,900,
and ring, $3,850).

3 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
Night Palm Interior Design Studio

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 GQ World
Watches

Finally, Women Are weren’t even allowed to vote in

local elections until 1991. Nineteen
Breaking Up One of Luxury’s ninety-one!
To capture the spirit of this excit-
Stuffiest Boys’ Clubs ing moment and to understand how
the watch world can build off of this
Dimepiece founder Brynn Wallner hosts a roundtable female-powered momentum, I sat
of leaders in the watch world to unpack the ascendant down with three women who’ve
power of the female collector. become major players in horology.
First is Ginny Wright, who dove
Above: Brynn
HE LUXURY WATCH mar- whole time are enjoying the cultural headlong into the pandemic-induced
Wallner wears a ket was hit by a perfect (and financial) shift. watch mania by joining Audemars
2000s Cartier
Santos Demoiselle
T storm in 2020: Supply
was low, demand was
According to Deloitte’s 2023
Swiss Watch Industry Study, “the
Piguet as its CEO of the Americas
in January 2021. Wright (right-
(center). Also high, hype was rampant, untapped potential of the female fully) brags about AP’s track record,
shown (clockwise and lots of people were stuck home watch buyer is significant.” Women having championed female talent
from top left): a
’90s Seiko; two with money to burn. Record-breaking are making more money (in this including influential watch designer
vintage Patek auction results and skyrocketing economy?!) and making more luxury Jacqueline Dimier (responsible for
Philippe Ellipses prices on the secondary market—fed watch purchases than ever before. the first ladies’ version of the Royal
and an Hermès by the rise of watch-oriented social Deeming women—fully half Oak in 1976) and appointed women
Nautical Link media—caused a horological frenzy the human population—as an to key roles. “I came into the indus-
bracelet watch;
T H E S E PA G E S : S E E A D D I T I O N A L C R E D I T S , PA G E 1 07.

in which everyone and their brother

two vintage
Cartier Baignoires; fancied themselves collectors, specu-
from left, an ’80s lators, and experts.
Rolex Datejust, an It’s also the year I launched also leaves out the other
’80s Rolex Dimepiece, my femme-forward watch half of the equation:
Lady-Datejust, a platform. I’d spent the previous year Women are only just shift,” she says. “Women
’90s Seiko, a 1978
Heuer Dive, a 2021 newly fascinated by timepieces after now becoming lead- are absolutely the
Cartier Tank a brief stint working at Sotheby’s— ers and voices in the minority in executive
Française, a but not seeing myself, a rookie to watch world. This is a roles across the indus-
Swatch Back to horology, at all represented. centuries-old industry try, but three out of our
Blueberry Girl. I arrived just in time. Because that built on a love of the
Right: An
wild year also inspired a new set of old ways. Plus, it’s dom-
Audemars Piguet
Royal Oak women to kick open the door to this
Carolina Bucci historically male-dominated arena—
Limited Edition. and those who have been here the

3 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 I L L U S T R A T I O N S B Y M I C H A E L H O U T Z
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 Then there’s Rebecca Ross, vice
president, head of sale, watches, at
GQ World
Christie’s. She’s a bona fide watch
Watches guru with a decade of experience. In
the early days, literally everyone else
in her department was a man. As she
continues to rise, she’s come to see
how essential her role is as a much-
needed female voice in the industry.
Rounding out my roundtable is
fine-jewelry designer Lauren Harwell
Godfrey, who happens to be building
one of my favorite personal watch col-
lections out there. With a to-die-for,
absurdly rare gold Rolex “Concorde”
GMT-Master 1675 and some insane
factory gem-set pieces, it’s clear how
her expert jeweler’s eye drives her col-
lection. But Harwell Godfrey stresses
that she couldn’t have sourced these
pieces alone, crediting her trusted
watch dealer with opening doors
for her in the secondary and vintage
watch markets (which could be much,
much friendlier to women).
Together, we talked about how the
growing female presence has—and
hasn’t yet—broken up the old boys’
Right: Ginny club, the effects from the cresting
Wright, Audemars hype wave of the pandemic (goodbye,
Piguet CEO of the buying a Rolex at a store!), and where
Americas, with female watch collectors break from old people, women, men, whoever. the industry shifted, from your
two Audemars the (male-driven) pack. We have to look at the shifting point of view?
Piguet pieces
(from top): a Code demographics and psychographics L AU RE N HA RW E L L GO D FRE Y: What I’ve

11.59; a gem-set BRYNN WAL L NER: Ginny, can you tell of what’s happening in the world, noticed, from my very specific
watch from the me how things have shifted through because, when working for a brand vantage point, is that access has
’90s. Below: your eyes since you started at AP? that’s been around for 148 years, our become more limited. What used to
Rebecca Ross, GINNY WR IG H T: When people were primary job is to make sure it’s be a category readily available
vice president,
bored at home during the pandemic, around for the next 148 years. We in-store has turned into something
head of sale,
watches, at watches became one of those can’t ignore women, who, at least in more relationship based. By being a
Christie’s; a 1950s categories that attracted people the US, make up 65 percent of good collector and a stand-up buyer
Movado. across the spectrum—young people, undergraduate students and 62.9 showing my interest in watches,
percent of graduate students. This is that’s how my access is starting to be
all going to impact our economy, and deeper and more profound, which
we have to prepare for that future. has led me into the world of vintage.

Rebecca, tell me about 2020 and
2021, which were record-breaking
years for watch departments at
auctions across the world.
R E B EC CA ROS S : It still feels like a
small industry in comparison to
many others. But there are a
variety of younger start-ups like
Bezel and Collectability that have
benefited by combining the know-
how of watch specialists with the
energy from the tech and editorial
side of things. There’s a real blend
now of companies that are making
the community larger, more
diverse, and more interesting.
Which is very reflective of the
collecting community.
Lauren, you’re one of these
collectors. And you bought your
first Rolex at a mall! It feels like
those days are done now. How has
Have you ever bought a watch
at auction?
HARWEL L GODFREY: I have not, and I’m
curious about this. Even though I’m
in the luxury space, I feel like I don’t
have any understanding of how to
acquire a watch at auction. I don’t feel
like I’m being spoken to, to be honest.
ROS S : A lot of our female collectors
come to me after being filtered
through our “luxury” umbrella.
Are men still outweighing women
significantly in the auction process?
ROS S : It’s definitely still male
dominated in terms of bidders and
buyers, but I’ve certainly seen the
numbers of women on the buying
and consignment sides increase. It
has improved, but we have a long
way to go. What’s interesting,
though, is that the status symbol of
the watch is close to outweighing

4 0 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
that of the engagement ring, which
is what women historically aspired
to own. Just as an engagement ring
can signify one’s love for another,
the watch represents one’s love for
the self and a celebration of one’s
own achievements.
Ginny, how do you feel about
watches as a nod to self-love?
WRIGH T: Rebecca hit the nail on the
head, and we’ve actually confirmed
seeing men follow suit—they’re
sizing down. But we only have a
certain amount of watches! I actively
need to preserve watches that
women want, because one of my
goals is trying to get them to make
up at least 30 percent of our
clientele in the Americas. Women
are also asking for more complicated
watches. But then smaller watches
in precious metals are definitely
coming back into favor. I look at the
Bucci has done with AP is gorgeous,
and I think there’s a real opportunity—
GQ World
as women are being brought more
into the fold—to work more Watches
collaboratively with jewelry
designers like this. As one of those
designers who hopes to someday
get my hands on a beautiful watch,
I think there could be a lot more
happening on that front.
W RI GHT: I’m wearing [one of Bucci’s
Audemars Piguet Frosted Gold
Royal Oak watches] right now!
I love this watch because it’s got the
jewelry feel—but it’s not diamonds,
it’s not over the top. You can wear it
every day, you can stack it.

Rebecca, have any trends emerged

entering the at auction that reflect what Lauren
and Ginny have been saying?
are triggered ROS S : We’re definitely seeing the end
of the traditional “ladies’ ” and
“gentleman’s” watches. There’s such a
blurring of the lines between what
male and female clients are buying.
As much as the fashion community
has already seen this trend, I think
the watch community is catching up.
But there’s so much more to be done Left: A Bulgari
Serpenti Tubogas
the agency to buy them ourselves. on the professional side. I really, Below from left:
In 2020, when I launched H A RWEL L G OD F R EY: I was at a retailer really can’t wait to see more women Lauren Harwell
Dimepiece, I didn’t actually own a the other day, and every single in leadership roles in this industry. Godfrey, fine
luxury watch. It took me a full year person in the jewelry department jeweler, wearing
of research and consideration to was wearing a Bulgari Serpenti. BRYNN WALLNER is the founder of a Rolex Day-Date
with lapis lazuli
even feel prepared to make that Every. Single. Person. It was this Dimepiece, dedicated to all things
dial; a 2022 Rolex
big purchase. Lauren, are you an interesting thing, because that women and watches. She has written Day-Date; a
emotional shopper? watch looks like a bracelet. What for Vogue, Financial Times, Harper’s 1986 Rolex
H A RW E L L G O D F R E Y: I’ve experienced [Italian jewelry designer] Carolina Bazaar, and more. Day-Date.
both sides of the collecting spectrum,
feeling emotionally attached but also
fiending over whatever my dealer
posts on his Instagram. [Laughs.]
ROS S : Loyalty is so important to this
business. To build the kind of
relationships Lauren is talking
about takes a lot of time and trust,
especially during this current
moment when so many people are
popping up, marketing themselves
as dealers. It’s my responsibility as
a Christie’s specialist to help my
clients develop their collections in
the right way. I’m very proud of the
relationships that I’ve built.

Now I want to talk about trends.

Lauren, your first watch was a teeny,
tiny gold Rolex with the black dial.
Back then, you noticed that women
were wearing only big watches—
HARW EL L GODF R EY: I wish I would
have held onto that little watch! It’s
back in style now!
WR IGH T: I really pay attention to my
top 50 female collectors. There are
certain women who only wear big
watches, and others who are
begging for smaller styles. And I’m

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 4 1
 We met him as a teenage
GQ World
Sports
Captain prodigy. Now, with his
PSG teammates Messi
and Neymar gone, and a
new job as French national
team captain, Kylian

Mbappé
Mbappé is reckoning with
the responsibilities
and privileges that come
with being the man.

T 25, KYLIAN MBAPPÉ

has somehow already
A played more than 400
games at the summit
of men’s soccer. After
breaking through as a teenage sensa-
tion at AS Monaco, Mbappé won the
World Cup with France at just 19, and
in 2017 moved to Paris Saint-Germain
for 180 million euros ($215 million).
He is already PSG’s all-time top scorer;
it seems likely that, sooner or later,
he’ll achieve the same status with the
French national team.
But this season marks a pivot
point for Mbappé. His legendary
teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar
left PSG last summer, joining the
MLS and Saudi Pro League, respec-
tively, twin departures that marked
the dismantling of one of the most
electric forward lines in world foot-

HAIR BY BRICE TCHAGA. MAKEUP BY MÉLISSA GATEAU. SE T DESIGN BY FELIX GESNOUIN. PRODUCED BY AP STUDIO, PARIS.
ball. Mbappé says he’s unfazed, by
both the burden he now shoulders
and the tumult within the global
game. “Many great players who have
shaped the history of football have
left Europe this summer, and we are
entering a new era,” Mbappé says.
“It’s become part of the cycle of this
sport, and at some point it will be my
turn to leave. I’m not worried about
these changes. I’m simply thinking
about continuing my career and fol-
lowing my own path.”
That path could fork soon, as
Mbappé’s contract with PSG ends in
June. After seven seasons of titles and
records, as well as tensions and frus-
trations, the striker will have a choice
to make: whether to stick around, in
hopes of leading PSG to its first-ever
Champions League win, or to chart his
own course elsewhere. (In 2023, the
Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal reportedly
offered him one of the most lucrative
athletic contracts in history.)
If all that—along with a new role
as captain of the French national
team—sounds like a burden, that’s
exactly the point. “I’ve shown that
pressure doesn’t affect me nega-
tively, and I’d even say that I need
it to perform my best,” he says.
“Pressure allows me to maintain the
degree of excellence required to play
at the highest level.” — M A X I M E J O LY

P H O T O G R A P H S B Y M A L I C K B O D I A N
4 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 S T Y L E D B Y S T E L L A G R E E N S P A N
O P P O S I T E PA G E
Hoodie and
t-shirt by
Dior Men.
T H I S PA G E
Coat, sweater,
shirt, pants,
and boots by
Dior Men.
Watch by Hublot
x Takashi
Murakami.

Check out
Kylian Mbappé’s
GQ Hype cover
and profile at
GQ.com.
24/7 FRESHNESS*
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 GQ World How Our Legacy
Fashion
Became the
Biggest Little
Fashion Brand
in the World

The Swedish brand Our Legacy has been

cultishly treasured by fans around the world
for years. Now, it’s finding a level of success
that even its founders didn’t see coming.
GQ went to Stockholm to see up close how
a beloved indie label is suddenly preparing
for fashion’s main stage. B y N O A H J O H N S O N

4 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H S B Y E R I K W Å H L S T R Ö M
 GQ World
Fashion

HE CREATIVE director
is asleep on the couch.
T His vintage Margiela
boots are on the floor
beside him. It’s not
yet noon but it’s already been a big
day for Cristopher Nying. And an
even bigger week. This whole year,
in fact, and the couple preceding it,
have been quite big for Nying and his
partners at Our Legacy.
It’s November in Stockholm.
The sun sets around 3 p.m. and the
clouds hang low and dense, like a
thick layer of wool. The nights are
long. Last night especially. It started
with a party at the Our Legacy Work
Shop store—one of two boutiques the
company operates in Stockholm—to
celebrate the brand’s latest block-
buster collaboration, with Emporio
Armani. Nying and his partners,
Jockum Hallin, with whom he
cofounded Our Legacy in 2005, and
Richardos Klarén, who joined the
business a couple years later, hosted
a very cool soiree of what I can only
assume are the most stylish people
in all of Sweden. A crew of young
chefs passed around veal tartare
and glasses of natural wine while
friends, relatives, and fans got a first
look at the goods. After that, a family
dinner at Bord, a favorite Stockholm
restaurant, which served mountains
of wood-fired langoustines from the
Baltic Sea and cold pilsner by the
glass. Finally, a group congregated at
an underground karaoke bar. When
I tapped out for the night, Nying had
just finished one of the most rivet-
ing performances I have ever seen—
“Give It Away,” by the Chili Peppers,
performed entirely as a freestyle. Previous page: Our
Nying may be snoozing now, but Legacy founders
Cristopher Nying
he and Hallin and Klarén were up and Jockum Hallin.
early this morning for a photo shoot engagement the brand has ever seen. days I got to spend observing the This page,
with a Swedish newspaper. When But it’s not unexpected: These days, operation, it was obvious that this is clockwise from
they returned, they began the final an Our Legacy collab is as hot as any- not your stereotypical oppressed and top left: Nying
stages of running through the next thing a streetwear or sneaker brand overworked fashion concern. The drapes fabric on
men’s collection with the design can cook up. In a few days, Hallin vibes are strong. Business is boom- a colleague; looks
from Our Legacy’s
team. “It’s a very important, very will be off to London, then Tokyo, ing. The brand is thriving, both in spring-summer
critical moment,” Nying will tell to launch the collection with Dover terms of sales and cultural impact. 2024 collection;
me later. Hallin, who heads up Our Street Market, which is carrying For a company that’s been in busi- Work Shop is
Legacy’s collaborations, has just it exclusively. ness for nearly 20 years, the future is one of the brand’s
dropped the first online teaser for While Nying sleeps, the Our suddenly blindingly bright. two stores in
Stockholm; the
the Armani collection and is trying Legacy studio, a converted parking After surviving the trend cycles
shop sells one-offs
to keep up with his endlessly buzz- garage where about 30 full-time and economic uncertainties that and the brand’s
ing phone. Today’s release is already employees work, is awake with a sank so many menswear labels, Our coveted
producing the most social media kind of ebullient chaos. In the few Legacy has somehow turned the past collaborations.

4 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
 two years into the busiest and most
profitable of its history. According to
the brand, its business has tripled in
size since 2020—and is projected to
reach $40 million in the first half of
2024. Since expanding into womens-
wear in 2018, Our Legacy now pro-
duces four primary collections each
year—two for men, two for women. In
addition, Our Legacy has a thriving
Work Shop program, captained by
Hallin, which produces off-schedule
special collections—capsules made
using deadstock fabrics, and col-
laborations with brands like Stüssy,
Denim Tears, and Satisfy Running—
that have reliably become mega-hype
events. Our Legacy has permanent
stores in Stockholm, London, and
Berlin, plus a few outposts in Korea,
and over 250 stockists globally.
But why the explosion now? Why
would a beloved brand suddenly catch
fire? For years, Our Legacy occupied a
comfortable niche as a consistent and
reasonably priced menswear brand. It
enjoyed a cult following among guys
who like their clothes to be interesting
and well-made, without any bold logos
or big statements, and without wreak-
ing havoc on their bank accounts. Our
Legacy has always been cool in the
way that any good, under-hyped thing
is—benefiting from a certain if-you-
know-you-know factor, while making
understated clothes that just about
anyone can wear. Along the way, the
brand became more experimental. It
began to push against the confines of
conventional menswear—introduc-
ing that women’s line and producing
clothes that blurred gender norms.
Still, it held onto its niche position
and catered to the shifting desires of
its followers, who could rely on Our
Legacy to make easy, accessible, wear-
able clothes that feel like they reflect
the moment.
But now there is no road map for
R U N WAY P H OTO G R A P H S : LU C A G R OT TO L I / C O U RT E SY O F O U R L E G A C Y.
a proper sewing room, where samples
can be developed and retooled as the
design work is happening.
During my time at the studio, a
Swiss-based consultant named Luigi
Bernasconi paid an important visit.
Bernasconi is a merchandising ring-
er—a specialist with a unique combi-
nation of skills in design, production,
and marketing that he uses to help
supercharge the efficiency of fashion
brands. He lives in Lugano but spends
his time in Paris and Milan and other
fashion capitals, lending his expertise
to companies like Bottega Veneta and
Prada. Bernasconi has become a key
figure in understanding the changing
fortunes at Our Legacy.
Bernasconi’s work with the brand
began in 2021 with an assessment. “I
interviewed basically the entire com-
pany,” he says. “I spent an hour with
each and every one of them and abso-
lutely saw the potential, but I saw
that it was purely, entirely creativity
driven. Which is great. So the need
was really to set up process and give
structure to the product offering, and
this is exactly what I do: optimize the
product offering in order to basically
turn creativity into profit.”
Nying is very hands on as a GQ World
designer. The first step in making Fashion
any Our Legacy garment is often
a sketch he draws in pen on paper.
Bernasconi helps optimize the stra-
tegic process that turns that sketch
into a finished product. Twice a year,
he meets with menswear designers
Johannes Wieser and Harry Peter
to run through every detail of every
garment, discussing fabric treat-
ments and fit, color, and texture;
they look carefully at zippers, hoods,
collars and cuffs, scrutinizing every
conceivable component, then assess
the price accordingly. “The product
gets so analyzed now,” Nying tells me.
“Which is very good. I like that, to
Clockwise from top
turn it inside out so many times, and left: Nying’s
when it finally hits the floor, it will be daughter plays in
very rare that something is wrong.” the racks at Work
Price is an important part of the Shop; more looks
Our Legacy business. Fans of the from spring-
summer 2024;
brand and experts in the industry
the brand’s
alike will tell you that what makes CEO, Richardos
Our Legacy so great is the value. Klarén, resting
Which is interesting considering the at the studio.

what Our Legacy faces, no tried-

and-true example of a cult mens-
wear brand entering its second
decade suddenly facing the possi-
bility—the necessity—to expand like
never before. What happens when
an adored, under-the-radar label
bursts beyond the beloved-niche
bubble that has safely ensconced it
for years? Our Legacy is entering
uncharted territory.

THE OUR LEGACY HQ is divided in half

by a long curtain. On one side sits the
sales and marketing teams. On the
other is design and production. There
are clothes everywhere you look.
Racks of samples and prototypes run
the length of the dividing curtain. In
one corner of the design side, there is

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 4 9
 GQ World
Fashion
brand sells shirts for $300, sweaters
for $500, and pants for $400. But
in the high-fashion universe these
prices are reasonable. In fact, for a
brand with a reputation for excel-
lence in design and quality like Our
Legacy, these prices are more than
reasonable. This was a crucial part
of Bernasconi’s initial assessment.
“That’s why they’re doing well these
days, because you have the creativity
and you have the price point as well,”
he says. “The price point is slightly
lower than luxury. I hate to say afford-
able luxury, but this is what makes
them really unique.”
Sweden’s famous reputation for
minimalism has led to some confu-
sion about whether Our Legacy is a
minimalist brand. But there’s nothing
minimal about Our Legacy’s trompe
l’oeil jeans and massive, shaggy cro-
cheted sweaters. These clothes bring
to mind a different era in Swedish
design, an early-20th-century period
called Swedish grace, characterized
by an ornate and opulent neoclassi-
cism. The way Our Legacy uses tex-
An Our Legacy
shirt, creatively
ture, pattern and prints, surprising
modeled; fabric treatments and elegant shapes,
merchandising has more to do with this period of
wizard Luigi Swedish design heritage than with
Bernasconi (in red the restraint of a midcentury aes-
sweater) with thetic. And it’s the wilder stuff that
members of the
brand’s design really shines in Our Legacy collec-
team finalizing the tions—wild, but still, always wear-
next collection. able, cool, and easy.
5 0 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
“Their way of approaching fash-
ion is truly unique,” Bernasconi says.
“People talk about quiet luxury—Loro
Piana or Brunello Cucinelli. This is
something totally different but that
is also quiet. It’s more like quiet fash-
ion. It’s that sensibility for people that
want to dress in a way that is unique
and is obviously more punk but still
subtle, still quiet.”
Quiet though it may be, the sensi-
bility of the brand is always apparent
to its fans. There is a vague air of
nostalgia for the ’90s, and a spiritual
kinship with the countercultures
that defined the era—skateboarding
and surfing, punk and hardcore, hip-
hop and streetwear. In general, the
clothes have a vintage, eternal quality
to them, and a very signature mix of
American and European influences.
“Honestly, it has such a wide
appeal,” Rikesh Patel, a buyer at
Dover Street Market, tells me. “It’s
super eclectic, the whole range.” He
says the ’90s vibes and the “punk
boardroom” aesthetic are really reso-
nating with millennial fashion shop-
pers right now. Yet what Our Legacy
has really gotten right in recent years
is offering the perfect kind of attire
for the post-COVID moment. “They
nailed that relaxed formal dressing,”
Patel says.
But the most appealing thing
about Our Legacy is something
intangible. There’s an intriguing
quality to the brand. It’s both anon-
ymous and very personal. It feels
like a discovery. Like a book or a
film you found and loved unexpect-
edly, for reasons that you can’t quite
describe. Even the name is enig-
matic and evocative, like the title of
an album. And as big as the brand
is, it still feels small in the best pos-
sible way. Considered, through and
through, but not in a commercially
driven way.
“Everything they do is super
authentic,” Patel says. “They are a
huge family and you can feel that
from the team they employ to the
product they make. If they do some-
thing it’s because it’s at the heart of
who they are. That’s what trumps all
else; you can really feel it.”
N Y I N G A N D H A L L I N met on the ice.
They played on the same hockey
team as kids, starting when they
were 12 and 13, respectively, living
around Jönköping, not far from
Huskvarna, a small industrial spot
in the southern part of Sweden that’s
famous for making chain saws and
dirt bikes. Nying’s family had a vinyl
business—which would eventually
become useful. But it took a few
years for their friendship to form
outside the rink. The two ventured
beyond Sweden—Hallin spent a sea-
son snowboarding in Austria, Nying
studied art (continued on page 104)
Big time!
For nearly 30 years,
Cillian Murphy has
built an unimpeachable
body of work as one
of our most versatile
actors—while somehow
also staying cleverly out of
sight. Now, as an Oscar front-
runner, the Oppenheimer star pulls
back the curtain (just a bit).
BY DANIEL RILEY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGORY HARRIS
STYLED BY GEORGE CORTINA

the fall of 2021,
Christopher Nolan knew just where to find
Cillian Murphy. The director flew to Ireland
with a document in his carry-on, Hollywood’s
equivalent of the nuclear football. It was
a script for his top secret new film, printed,
apparently, on red paper. “Which is suppos-
edly photocopy-proof,” Murphy explained. He
wasn’t surprised by the in-person visit. The
two had worked together on five previous
films, and every Nolan script, Murphy said,
had been dropped off by Nolan or one of his
family members. “So, like, it’s been his mom
who’s delivered the script to me before. Or his
brother, he’ll go away and come back in three
hours. Part of it has to do with keeping the
story secret before it goes out. But part of it
has to do with tradition. They’ve always done
it this way, so why stop now? It does add a rit-
ual to it, which I really appreciate. It suits me.”
Murphy met Nolan at his Dublin hotel
room—and then Nolan left him to read. He
read and read and read. All 197 pages, the rar-
est kind of script, written in the first person of
the film’s protagonist, J. Robert Oppenheimer.
All action, all incidence, swirling around this
character—a big-brained, psychologically
complex giant of world history. Murphy had
never played a lead in a Nolan film before,
but had committed to this role as soon as
Nolan told him about it, before he’d even seen
a page of the script. “He’d already called me
and said he wanted me to play the part. And
I had said Yes—because I always say Yes to
him.” The afternoon ran out. “And he doesn’t
have a phone or anything,” Murphy said. “But
he knew instinctively when to come back.”
Nolan in command of time, as ever. They
spent the rest of the evening together—and
then Murphy took the DART train home, and
got to work.
The result was one of the most watched
and most acclaimed films of 2023—a nearly
billion-dollar blockbuster about a tormented
genius (and, yes, the father of the atomic
bomb). The performance affirmed for many
what has been quietly known for some time:
that Cillian Murphy is, or at least was, one of
the most underrated actors in all of Hollywood.
In small potent roles in those other Nolan
films. As a shape-shifting bit player and lead
in dozens of films and plays over the past three
decades. And, of course, across 10 years and six
seasons of Peaky Blinders—the hit series that
made him truly known globally. “Some years
ago,” Christopher Nolan said, “I made what
was probably a mistake in some moment of
drunken sincerity of telling him he’s the best
actor of his generation. And so now he gets to
show that to the rest of the world so everybody
can realize that.”
Part of the reason that Murphy still felt like
something of a secret until recently is that he
lives, breathes, and presides at a remove from
the noise. This is by design. In 2015, Murphy
5 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
←←
OPENING PAGES
shirt
Dries Van Noten
pants and belt
returned home to Ireland from (throughout) from Cillian Murphy, at least on one
London, already some distance Kincaid Archive weekend this winter, seemed to
from Hollywood proper, to a Malibu me to have something so deeply
quiet hamlet on the Irish Sea— boots figured out that I spent the
not exactly off the grid, but one Manolo Blahnik month after our time together
ring still further outside the blast necklace unable to shake the experience
radius of his industry. (top) of being in the presence of some-
One evening this winter, I took Atra Nova by one living so much the way that
Sheila B.
the DART down the seacoast from so many other actors—so many
Dublin City Centre to Monkstown necklaces artists, so many people—claim to
(second and third
to have dinner with Murphy. We from top)
want to live. Away from it all, but
met at a restaurant where, he told and in highest demand. Delivering
me, “I have a usual table, would bracelets Oscar-worthy performances,
you believe it?” A statement (on right wrist, while also seeming convincingly
encircled in neon pride for how top and bottom, content to disappear for a long
throughout)
much it emphasized that he did while, at any point, no questions.
Platt Boutique
not have a usual table anywhere Jewelry The stabilizing forces at home
else. He slunk there comfortably seemed to work as an anchor
necklace
for much of the night, bouncing, (bottom) point from which to go off and
leaning forward, floppy rock- and ring wander as an artist. “He has this
er-dad hair swept casually across (on ring finger, rare blend of humility with this
his forehead, his famously light throughout), supercharge of creativity,” Emily
eyes drawing in passersby like two his own Blunt said. “He’s just a lovely,
pockets of quicksand. watch sane person. He’s so, so sane. And
Murphy and his wife of 20 (on left wrist, yet he’s got such wildness in him
middle, throughout)
years, artist Yvonne McGuinness, in the parts that he’s able to play.”
and bracelet
live by the sea with their two teen- (on left wrist, bottom, He was the first of his friends
age sons. In Ireland, the abun- and throughout) to have kids, and thus will be
dance of their creative existence is from the first with an empty nest.
all around them. The art galleries FD Gallery More time for movies. (Maybe.)
all seem to be filled with work by bracelet More time for music. (Certainly.)
his family members. The music on (on left wrist, top, More time to go on runs at
the radio is curated by friends—or and throughout) night, when the lights streak-
Belperron
Murphy himself. There are occa- ing by make him feel like he’s
sional pints with his elder Irish ring going faster. Even more time for
(on left pinkie,
actor idols, Brendan Gleeson and throughout)
sleep: “I sleep a lot. I do 10-hour
Stephen Rea. TenThousandThings sleeps.” He seemed immune to
Life here for Murphy is filled rings
the need to be in the mix—of
with, well, life. His boys are (on right pinkie, fame, of fashion, of free din-
approaching exit velocity. There throughout) ners, the titillating offerings of
are exams. Chores. Errands. He Graff a scene. A lot of actors age out of
and his youngest were flying out →
that compulsion, but the thing
in the morning to attend a soccer OPPOSITE PAGE
is, he’s not old. Forty-seven. At
match in Liverpool. “I would’ve sweater the height of his powers, enter-
taken you elsewhere for some Bode ing his prime. Not exiting the
Guinness,” Murphy said, “except industry, but just floating lightly
I have to drive to drop my boy off beside, until called upon, which
at a party tonight.” The brand of busyness all he often is, and will be more now than ever.
felt quite far from the bubbles that typically He tries to do one movie a year, preferably
cocoon the leading men in the film industry. not in summer, when he likes to spend most
“I have a couple of friends who are actors of his time on the west coast of Ireland doing
but a majority of them are not,” Murphy said. nothing much but finding new music for his
“The majority of my buddies are not in the radio program on BBC 6 or walking his black
business. I also love not working. And I think Lab, Scout. He is perfectly happy to be “unem-
for me a lot of research as an actor is just fuck- ployed” while he waits for the right new film
ing living, and, you know, having a normal to come his way. “There could’ve been a sit-
life doing regular things and just being able uation when Chris called me up that I was
to observe, and be, in that sort of lovely flow of doing something else,” he said. “And that
humanity. If you can’t do that because you’re would’ve been the worst of all scenarios.” In
going from film festival to movie set to pro- this way, he seems to adhere to his version of
motions…I mean that’s The Bubble. I’m not Michael Pollan’s adage toward healthy eating:
saying that makes you any better or less as an “Make movies. Not too many. Mostly with
actor, but it’s just a world that I couldn’t exist Christopher Nolan.” Imagine the discipline,
in. I find it would be very limiting on what you the confidence, the peace of mind, to not worry
can experience as a human being, you know?” about missing an opportunity, a lunch, a party,

a fork in the road back in one of the frothier
Hollywood hubs, but rather to stroll along
emerald shores, as the days stretch out till 10
at night, knowing that they know you—and
that ultimately they know where to find you.
In Monkstown. Probably at his table.
Looking present. Clear-eyed. Like any local,
but with more moisture in his skin. At dinner,
he asked me just once not to put something in
the piece: a nuanced take he shared on a local
establishment. Nothing so dangerous as an
unwelcome opinion in a small town. No truer
sign of someone “just fucking living” there.
The dream.
NOLAN HAD FIRST seen Murphy in 2003, in
a promotional image for 28 Days Later that
had run in the San Francisco Chronicle. “I
was looking to cast Batman, looking for some
actors to screen-test, and I was just very struck
by his eyes, his appearance, everything about
him, wanted to find out more,” Nolan told
me. “When I met him, he didn’t strike me as
5 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
necessarily right for Batman. But there was
just a vibe—there are people you meet in
your life who you just want to stay connected
with, work with, you try to find ways to create
together.” So Nolan put him on camera just
to see what happened. “He first performed
as Bruce Wayne, and I saw the crew stop and
pay attention in a way that I had never seen
before, and really never seen since. And it
was this electricity just coming off the guy,
it was an incredible energy. And so I called
some executives, and they were impressed
enough with him that they let me cast him as
Scarecrow. Those Batman villains at the time
had only ever been played by huge stars—Jack
Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, it’s just
a testament to his raw talent.”
Batman Begins was the first of his smaller
roles in Nolan’s three Batman movies,
Inception, and Dunkirk. “I hope he won’t
mind me saying, but when I first worked with
him, he was all pure instinct, and the techni-
cal side of acting wasn’t something that had
←
sweater
Tom Ford
pants
Saint Laurent
by Anthony registered as important
Vaccarello with him. We would lit-
scarf, erally put a mark down
stylist’s own and he would just walk
necklace right over it,” Nolan said,
(top) laughing. But over two
Mikimoto decades, “as I saw him
necklace develop his technical
(middle) facility, it did not in any
Platt Boutique way distract or diminish
Jewelry
the instinctive nature of
necklace his performance.”
(bottom),
his own
Fo r t h e l e a d i n
Oppenheimer, Murphy
prepared at home for six
months, focusing first on the voice and the
silhouette (in other words, shedding weight
to reflect the skin and bones of a world-re-
nowned physicist who subsisted primarily
on martinis and cigarettes during his years
developing the bomb). On set, as the days of
filming piled on in the New Mexico desert,
the specialness of what Murphy was up to
started to spread across the set among the
cast and crew “like a rumor,” Nolan said.
“I remember the same thing with Heath
Ledger on The Dark Knight.”
Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer’s belea-
guered wife, Kitty, first got to know Murphy
well on A Quiet Place Part II. “Cillian’s really
kidnapping to be in a scene with. He pulls
you into this vibrational vortex,” she told me.
“He loves a party. But when he’s working, he’s
intensely focused, and won’t socialize very
much at all. Certainly not on Oppenheimer,
I mean he didn’t have anything left in the
tank to say one word to someone at the end
of the day.”
Matt Damon told me that when they were
shooting out in the middle of New Mexico,
he and Blunt and the rest of the cast would
go down and eat at this one little café. “It was
like a mess tent,” he said. “And Cillian was
invited every night, but never made it once.”
Murphy was back in his room, preserving
his energy, prepping for the next day, minding
the Oppenheimer silhouette.
“Okay, he’s losing weight, he can’t eat at
night, you know he’s miserable,” Damon said.
“But you know he’s doing what’s best for the
movie that you all want to be as good as possi-
ble, and so you’re cheering him on. But at din-
ner you’re sitting there and you’re all shaking
your heads going, Man, this is brutal.”
“The one thing that he would allow him-
self, his one luxury, is that he would take a
bath at night. I mean he would allow himself
literally a few almonds or something. And
then sit in his bath with his script and just
work. By himself, every night.”
The performance is so big, but so much
of it is invisible to the audience, in the con-
centrated intensity of the interpretation.
The nucleus. Toward which so many ele-
ments subtly (text continued on page 62)
t-shirt from
Raggedy
Threads
pants
Prada
shoes
Bally
socks
Uniqlo
all clothing
Ralph Lauren
Purple Label
necklace
(top)
Atra Nova by
Sheila B.
necklace
(middle)
FoundRae
necklace
(bottom),
his own

6 0 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
 →
OPPOSITE PAGE
shirt and pants
Versace
tank top
draw us closer to his character. Calvin Klein N O N E T H E L E S S : H E G R E W up in Cork. cast Murphy in 2002’s 28 Days Later, the first
Just one example: If it were period shoes Went to Catholic school better film of Murphy’s that made him known. It led,
accurate, Murphy said, everyone George suited for a certain kind of athletic in its way, to the Nolan partnership, as well to
would be smoking and wearing Cortina for boy than an artistic soul. “I always working with Boyle again on 2007’s Sunshine.
hats, but he’s the only one doing Anderson & fucking hated team sports. I like “When we did 28 Days Later, he was really just
either. “It’s emphatic, but sublimi- Sheppard watching them. But I was terrible starting off,” Boyle said. “By the time he came
nally so.” The author Kai Bird, who socks at them,” he said. That classic sys- back for Sunshine, he was a seriously accom-
cowrote the monumental biogra- Uniqlo tem for schooling was not good for plished actor.”
phy of Oppenheimer, American necklaces (top) him, “emotionally and psychologi- In the aughts, Murphy was working fre-
Prometheus, upon which the film is Platt Boutique cally,” he said. “But at least it gave quently, in some movies that were better
Jewelry
based, spent a day at the Los Alamos me something to push against.” than others. “Many of my films I haven’t
set watching Murphy play the scene necklace He played in a successful band seen,” he said. “I know that Johnny Depp
(bottom),
where Oppenheimer talks to his his own
with his brother, half-heartedly would always say that, but it’s actually true.
team of scientists about the bomb entered the local university as a law Generally the ones I haven’t seen are the ones
while someone drops marbles into student. While in school in Cork, he I hear are not good.”
a fishbowl and a snifter. “At one hair by teddy stumbled into a performance of A I asked him if he’s seen Oppenheimer.
charles at
point during a break, he approached nevermind
Clockwork Orange and fell in with “Yes, I’ve seen Oppenheimer…” he said,
wearing his baggy brown suit and agency. skin the stage scene there. He hadn’t rolling his eyes.
turquoise belt and I raised my arms by holly silius trained in any way, but he got the When Nolan finished the film, Murphy,
and shouted, ‘Dr. Oppenheimer, Dr. using lyma first role he ever auditioned for, in his wife, and his younger son flew to Los
Oppenheimer, I’ve been waiting & ysl beauty. Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs, which trav- Angeles to watch it for the first time in
set design by
decades to meet you!’ ” Bird said. eled around the UK, Europe, and Nolan’s private screening room. “It’s pretty
colin donahue
“He especially captured the voice for owl and Canada, and transformed his life. “It nice…” he said, trying to balance obvious
and Oppie’s intensity.” (At one point the elephant all happened to me in one month, in enthusiasm with not giving too much away.
during our conversation, Bird asked agency. August ’96: We got offered a record “You know, he shows film prints there. The
me to confirm: “Those are his blue produced by deal, I failed my law exams, I got sound is extraordinary.” How many seats?
eyes, right? Or is he wearing lenses?”) paul preiss at the part in Disco Pigs, and I met my “Uh, I’d say maybe 50?” So, Murphy did
preiss creative.
The film was released on wife,” he said. “I now look back and see this film of his—in perhaps the most
Barbenheimer weekend, just after go: Oh, shit, I didn’t know then how dialed-in home theater known to man.
the SAG-AFTRA strike began, and despite important all these things were—the sort of In the summer of 2005, just a couple
enjoying some lighter time with Blunt, domino effect that they would have on my months after Batman Begins came out,
Damon, and the cast, Murphy was relieved to life.” I asked Murphy, who has, in the past, said Murphy was back in theaters with Wes
cut short the promotion of the film. “I think he identified as an atheist, if such a confluence Craven’s Red Eye. It was villain season. And
it’s a broken model,” he said of red-carpet ever made him wonder if there was indeed a the two roles, in close quarters, seemed to
interviews and junkets. Outdated and a drag higher power organizing all of this. “Ohhh,” he coalesce around a feeling: That guy creeps
for actors. “The model is—everybody is so said. “I love the chaos and the randomness. I me out. When casually canvasing people
bored.” Look what happened when they went love the beauty of the unexpected.” about what they think of when they think of
on strike, he said. It all stopped. But the fact That winter weekend, while walking Murphy, I was shocked by the imprint that
that the film was good, and Barbie was good, around Dublin, on a bit of a Joycean ramble, Red Eye had on an American of a certain age.
two at the same time, people going crazy—it we passed a bookstore. “This was my favorite “Oh, I know, it’s crazy!” Murphy said. “I
just shows you don’t need it. “Same was the bookshop when I first moved up to Dublin. I think it’s the duality of it. It’s why I wanted to
case with Peaky Blinders. The first three sea- didn’t have any money and I was living with play it. That two thing. The nice guy and the
sons there was no advertising, a tiny show on my mother-in-law. And I would come in here bad guy in one. The only reason it appealed
BBC Two; it just caught fire because people and get a coffee for 50p, but then they would, to me is you could do that”—he snapped his
talked to each other about it.” like, refill it, you know? So, I’d sit in there all fingers—“that turn, you know?”
Murphy’s reticence in many interviews is day and just read plays and then put them “They say the nicest people sometimes
palpable. “It’s like Joanne Woodward said,” back on the shelves, and then go home and my make the best villains,” Rachel McAdams
he told me. “‘Acting is like sex—do it, don’t mother-in-law would feed me dinner,” he said. said, recalling her time with Murphy on the
talk about it.’ ” Although I wouldn’t charac- “Just to educate myself. To catch up. ’Cause cramped airplane set of Red Eye. “We’d listen
terize his disposition on, say, late-night TV I didn’t go to drama school, so I’d read all to music and gab away while doing the cross-
as gruff, he’s basically just incapable of going the plays I should’ve read if I went to drama word puzzle, which he brought every day and
full phony. He is, in other words, reacting the school. I’d ask all these writers and directors would graciously let me chime in on.… I think
way you might to being asked the same ques- to tell me all the plays that I must read.” the number one question I got about Cillian
tion for the hundredth time in a week. I’m “Theater is the key to Cillian,” director way back then was whether or not he wore
curious to watch him suffer through his first Danny Boyle told me. “Weirdly, given that he is contact lenses.”
Oscar campaign, where answering the same such an extraordinary film actor.” That ability, “I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun
questions about his performance is basically from the theater, to travel the great distance making it,” Murphy said. “But I don’t think it’s
the point for several months. of an extreme character arc. “Everybody talks a good movie. It’s a good B movie.”
“People always used to say to me, ‘He about his dreamy Paul Newman eyes. And During that same stretch, Murphy starred
has reservations’ or ‘He’s a difficult inter- all that’s to his advantage, of course, because in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the
viewee,’ ” Murphy said. “Not really! I love behind is this capacity, this reach that he has Barley, one of the best films he’s made, and
talking about work, about art. What I strug- into volcanic energy.” (The other key to Cillian, one that Murphy is uniquely proud of. A
gle with, and find unnecessary, and unhelp- Boyle said, is that he’s a bloody Irishman: “He’s period epic that tells the story of a crew of
ful about what I want to do, is: ‘Tell me one of the great, great exports, and the home- Irish friends who find themselves fighting first
about yourself…’ ” land clearly nourishes him constantly.”) Boyle the British in the (continued on page 104)

6 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
 PHOTOGRAPH BY
HUY LUONG

Rogue vintage shop

(clockwise from
top left): Jenny
Bocchicchio, Emma
Rogue, Sierra Frazier,
Angel Cuji, Hayley
Giuca, Gabriel Celik,
Mateo Dorado, and
Kelsey Jenik.

It’s the inspo behind your favorite

designer’s latest runway show and the fuel
for every TikTok-born “-core” on your feed—
which explains why everyone’s suddenly
hunting for vintage clothing. Here’s our guide
to digging through the sprawling world of
secondhand style like a pro and finding some
new-to-you gems of your own.
CAFE NORDSTROM HAT
I saw this and was taken back to
popping into Nordstrom with my mom
as a kid. We’d grab a lemonade and a
sandwich; it made shopping feel like a
treat, not a chore.
SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
ASHTRAY
I’ve come across many ceramic objects
from Saks, which always have the logo
stamped on, so this one stands out
because it’s hand-painted.
Photographs by Bowen Fernie

Four of fashion’s coolest
designers took us to their
favorite flea markets
across the globe.
BY MAX BERLINGER
→ Ask the man behind
Visvim, Hiroki Nakamura,
what he loves about a flea
market, and it’s not only the
chance to turn up a soulful
grail or a century-old textile
he can use in a new piece.
“What I’m looking for is a new
perspective,” he says. “I’m not
looking for particular things.”
With that in mind, we asked
four designers from around
the world to let us tag along
while they dug through their
favorite fleas—which happen
to be four of the biggest and
most beloved in existence.
Hiroki Nakamura
at the Toji Temple
Flea Market
LOCATION: Kyoto, Japan
OPEN: 21st of the month
→ Hiroki Nakamura,
founder of Visvim, is a
historian—of fashion, of
fabrics, of people—who
uses an anthropological
eye and an artist’s touch to
make clothing that’s been
dubbed “future vintage.”
His clothes can evoke the
Japanese idea of wabi-sabi,
a spiritual concept that finds
beauty in imperfection and
impermanence. It makes
sense, then, that of the
flea markets he frequents,
his favorite is Kyoto’s
Toji Temple flea market,
situated outside a five-story
Buddhist pagoda. He goes
to find porcelain, wood
carvings, deadstock fabrics,
and, most importantly,
vendors with a deep love
for, and stories about, their
various wares. “I want to see
people who have their own
eye, and their own taste,” he
says. “That’s interesting to
me—people who do it not
because of business, but
because of passion.”
7 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
“Funny things
happen, especially at
auctions. People don’t
know what they’re
Emily Adams getting until they
Bode Aujla at the unpack it.”
Brimfield Antique
Flea Market
LOCATION: Brimfield, MA
OPEN: May, July, and September
→ Emily Adams Bode
Aujla grew up going to flea
markets, but only started
visiting the Brimfield Antique
Flea Market when she
started her label, Bode, in
2016. The sprawling thrice-
yearly, multiday bazaar
(running since 1959) is a
Burning Man of mercantilism
packed with furniture,
fabrics, clothes, and
curiosities that tell a story.
Bode, the brand, is informed
by the types of textiles
sold at these fleas, which
embody self-sufficiency
and an almost-lost art of
American craftsmanship. “I tell people to ask
That means the designer is where something came
from, because often
not always just there to stroll. the seller knows a
“Sometimes it’s for pleasure,”
really wild story about
she says, “and other times the estate sale where
it’s more intentional.” they got it.”
“I remember seeing
this one guy, about
18 years ago, who
was selling boro in
Japanese indigo, when
people didn’t care
about it—it was just
old worker’s clothes.
He was renting some
rooms from the temple
and living there. And
I started using those
ideas of boro and
indigo for my line
Visvim ICT.”
“I’ll see something
I like and ask myself:
Why do I like this? It
has to be something
I feel. When you design
something, you have
to use that part of
your brain too—the
feeling part versus the
thinking part.”
“I’ll bring a furoshiki—
an old Japanese
style of bag, which is,
basically, a piece of
cloth. If I don’t have
one, there’s always one
at the flea market.”
 “Sometimes we have
a really strict number
and we pack up when
we hit it. I think it’s
important to set a
number and not go
over it. Even if it’s just
$100 more.”
“Go when you want.
Pack bags that are
compactible. Layers
are important. Wear
sunscreen, because
it’s in an open field.
And keep in mind there
are only port-a-potties
or the woods.”
Chris Gibbs
at the Rose Bowl
Flea Market
LOCATION: Pasadena, CA
OPEN: Second Sunday of the month
→ When Chris Gibbs, owner
of LA boutique Union, debuted
his Air Jordan collab in 2018,
he set up a booth at the Rose
Bowl flea market and got to
selling. “It was fun as hell,”
he says. “I had friends telling
me they saw someone selling
vintage Union Jordans that
were fake, and I told them,
‘No, it’s real.’ ” Launched in
1968, The Bowl goes down
in a parking lot outside the
Pasadena stadium, with
20,000 shoppers showing up
as early as 5 a.m. (complete
with headlamps) to get first
dibs on the 2,500 vendors.
You can find anything,
but it’s earned a global
rep for street- and
sportswear from the
’70s, ’80s, and ’90s—
and for its lively scene.
“In our stores, the
seating, lighting, and
decor are vintage.
I have their floor plans
Pierre Mahéo on my iPhone.”
at the Saint-Ouen
Flea Market
LOCATION: Paris, France
OPEN: Saturdays, Sundays, and
Mondays
→ Pierre Mahéo, founder
of Officine Générale, vividly “You’ll see people
remembers his first time with a nice look: how
going to the infamous they wear their
Saint-Ouen flea market scarf, or their vintage
coat…the volume.
some 35-plus years ago, It’s inspiring.”
when his big sister’s then
boyfriend operated a booth
there selling vintage denim,
leather coats, and “big E”
Levi’s jackets. Since then,
he’s become something of a
flea fanatic, traveling from
Tokyo to Pasadena—but
it’s Saint-Ouen, one of the
world’s largest, with its 1,700
vendors spread across 17
acres, that he always comes
back to. Mahéo shops mostly
for furniture to place in his
stores (he says the clothing
selection in the US and
Japan is better) and gets the
people watching for free. “On
Sunday, it’s a fun scene. You
can see Hedi [Slimane] or
Kris Van Assche walking by; “We never go for
famous actors or singers,” the pieces that are “When you look for
Mahéo says. “You can get perfectly restored, something, you won’t
coffee, lunch, and meet because you lose the find it—and when you
some friends.” patina. It’s why I hate don’t hunt, you’ll find
deadstock. You want it. But that’s part of
the patina!” the game.”
“I’m not going to the
booths with piles of
“I’m the kind of guy clothes—I want it more
that will get there at, considered. But I also
like, 10 a.m., not 5 a.m. don’t want it to be so
[But] I’ll spend the considered that it’s
whole day there, like $1,000 T-shirts.”
till 3 or 4 p.m.”
“If we can use it in
“I’m probably the terms of design, but
world’s worst haggler. it also fits me, I might
I shouldn’t say that
spend more. I have an
out loud. If I think it’s inappropriate amount
worth $30 and they of XL vintage in [the
ask for $30, I’ll pay it. I Union] collection.”
won’t be like, ‘Well, can
I get it for $20?’ ”
M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 7 3
Photograph by Huy Luong
 GROOMING, JESSICA ORTIZ AT K ALPANA.

Photographs by Bowen Fernie

 Twenty-five
years after
becoming
one of
the most
staggeringly
famous
men on the
planet,
a wiser, more
assured
Ricky Martin
is taking
another run
at being
a star.
While also
being
himself,
this time.

By ALEX FRANK
Photographs by
ERIC RAY
DAVIDSON
Styled by
BRANDON TAN

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 7 7

RICKY MARTIN’S midcentury Beverly Hills
home is all glass, permitting a visitor who
has just rung the bell a chance to see him
hop joyfully through his cavernous foyer to
answer. There’s something undeniably ado-
lescent about his demeanor—like that of a
teenager left alone in a grown-up’s house.
Throwing open the door, he says hello, and
leads me in, past a framed photo on the wall
in which he’s full-on mooning the photog-
rapher. He’ll tell me later that he keeps in
touch with his inner child, but, it seems to
me, that child isn’t so inner: It’s right there
in front of you, bare butt to the camera.
These are busy days for Martin, who, nearly
25 years after the whirlwind of his “Livin’ la
Vida Loca” days, finds himself in the hectic
throes of a return to stage and screen. He’s been
touring with Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias—“It’s
three guys with the attitude of a bullfighter,” he
tells me. “Boom, boom, boom!”—and he’s star-
ring this month in the Apple TV+ series Palm
Royale, set in 1960s Palm Beach. He plays
an ambiguously oriented country-club hand
named Robert, and when he talks about the
ensemble cast (Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett,
and Laura Dern and her father, Bruce) and the
thrill of the big-budget production, he hides
his face in his hands in anxious wonderment.
You’d think a man of his accomplishments—
childhood stardom in the boy band Menudo,
over 70 million records sold since—would be
past feeling giddy. But he seems preternat-
urally incapable of being blasé. “They say
‘Action’ and I was nervous,” he tells me. “But
you have to go with the flow.”
On set, he reminded himself to stay
loose, to improvise. He was alert to what
he could pick up from his seasoned costars.
“There’s nothing jaded about him,” says
Laura Dern. “He was ready to learn at every
given moment.”
It’s worth noting that he’s not entirely new
to acting. In 2018, Martin appeared in the sec-
ond season of FX’s American Crime Story—
The Assassination of Gianni Versace—playing
7 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
the fashion designer’s partner, WHILE MANY OF the new generation of über-
famous faces have decamped to places like
nomination for his work. Before Calabasas, sealed within the bright heat and
that, he had a stint in the mid ’90s broad acreage of the Valley, there’s something
on General Hospital after becom- classically “You’re a star!” iconic about Martin’s
ing a teen star in an Argentine leafy perch in Beverly Hills. He lives above the
soap. He got diverted when he fray. There is an intimidatingly high hedge
felt celestial destiny pulling him that lines his property, and a private security
toward singing. “The first time guard driving around the neighborhood.
I was in front of the camera, I said, In ways more than geographical, Martin’s
‘This is it, this is what I want to brand of fame is a throwback. Born and
do forever,’ ” he says. “With music, raised middle-class in San Juan, he had to
I just surfed a wave. It was some- cross a sea and a language barrier in order
thing uncontrollable.” to find his audience, coming up in the studio-
Now, in middle age, he might system days of celebrity, long before the
internet allowed people to gain notoriety on
sure, he does not look like any their own. Uploading self-recorded videos to
52-year-old I’ve ever met, with a YouTube or building a DIY fan base on social
media was never an option. The distribution
wear when a smile draws minuscule wrin- channels were tightly controlled. But the
kles around his brow. “Someone with that industry’s star-making power was profound.
level of charisma—they’re one in a million,” In 1984, when he was 12, Martin won a
says Abe Sylvia, the creator of Palm Royale, spot with Menudo and for several years
who felt certain of Martin’s enduring magne- was put through a Mouseketeers-style boot
tism. “He might not have traveled the world camp. The band made him a heartthrob in
doing summer [stock theater], but he has the Spanish-speaking world and each mem-
a chemical effect on every environment he ber of the group was told to compete to see
walks into. I don’t think you get to be Ricky who could get women to shout the loudest.
Martin without a work ethic like his.” “Who can shake the hips more?” he says,
Still, his most consuming job seems to be remembering the challenge. For his five-
as a family man. Martin has four children by year run with the band, he was crushingly
surrogacy—twin boys he had as a single man beloved throughout Latin America. “The
in 2008, and a daughter and son born in 2018 fame, the money, the screaming girls—it’s
and 2019 that he shares with the something that I really liked,”
visual artist Jwan Yosef, to whom ←← he says. “I went from living in a
he was married for six years. As OPENING PAGES world so small—my house was
swimsuit and shoes
the two worked through their a block away from my school—
Bottega Veneta
recent divorce, Martin’s mother, to walking onto a stage with
sunglasses
Nereida Morales, started to come 200,000 people.”
Thierry Lasry
from their native Puerto Rico to His transition into an adult
vintage watch
help Ricky out with the brood. star—of almost galactic propor-
(throughout)
On the day I visit, she is hang- Piaget tions—was careful, and strate-
ing around the kitchen, chat- gic. Ultimately, his successful
necklace
ting with one of her grandsons, Shay Jewelry “crossover” to English-language
Matteo, a 15-year-old in gray audiences put him on a foot-
sweats and floppy hair, parked → ing worldwide with the biggest
at the refrigerator hunting for OPPOSITE PAGE stars on the planet, something
shirt
something to eat. few Spanish-language artists,
Dior Men
Martin is an active dad. He if any, had achieved. It began
pants
shuttles his kids to baseball with a performance of his World
Bode
practice and gets chicken nug- Cup anthem “La Copa de la
shoes
gets on the dinner table. When Vida” at the 1999 Grammys—a
Manolo Blahnik
we bump into Matteo’s twin, moment that was one of the big-
scarf
Valentino, playing video games gest “star is born” riptides since
(worn on neck)
in a den, he bristles at being Charvet Elvis appeared on Ed Sullivan.
interrupted, responding with a Martin thoroughly stole the
scarf (in hand)
terse teenage “Leave me alone,” Ralph Lauren show and wowed Madonna, ever
pulling his hoodie up over his Purple Label attuned to the zeitgeist, who
head. But, angsty moments aside, sunglasses began fawning about him in
it’s impossible to ignore just how Thierry Lasry the press lounge backstage.
powerful a figure Ricky Martin bracelets “That night,” he remembers,
is. “My son was talking about (throughout) “activated everything.”
the tour,” he tells me. “He goes, Luis Morais The next day, Martin was a
‘Pitbull says he’s Mr. Worldwide. ring (throughout) front-page story, which helped
My father is Mr. Worldwide.’ ” Shay Jewelry kick off a so-called Latin
explosion that also brought ↓ time, and realized immediately most visible Latin figures of all time. He felt
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira to tank top it was the ticket. “There was a he had to offer an immaculate image. “I took
the fore, made him a household Ferragamo higher force of inspiration,” he it as a challenge,” he says. “People would say,
name as much in Poughkeepsie says. “I knew what I wanted. ‘Where are you from? Costa Rica?’ And I’m
as in Puerto Rico, and branded him the I wanted the US audience.” like, ‘No, Puerto Rico.’ ”
handsome, happy face of Latin culture. For a brief period at the turn of the cen- The lead single from his next album was
“It’s not that Ricky was [just] known in LA, tury, he was one of the world’s most famous a middling attempt to capitalize on “Livin’ la
Miami, New York, Chicago, Dallas. He went human beings, and something libidinal Vida Loca” called “She Bangs,” which failed
to middle America,” he says, adopting the about him—his hip trembles were talked to move the needle in the same way, and his
third person to underscore the out-of-body about like earthquakes—sent hormones career never reached those same 1999 heights.
nature of it all. “I had a feast with the entire racing; to this day, women throw their bras “It’s very difficult to repeat,” he says. He got
country. You go to little towns and people at him onstage. “The power of the hips, overexposed, to the point that Madonna,
would know Ricky Martin.” right? Those leather pants, man,” he says. not exactly known for reserve, told him to
Next came the hit that he will never He struggles still to understand it. “I was chill out. “She said, ‘Ricky, stop doing inter-
escape, the catchy, cheesy, sublimely engi- testosteronic, and that triggers fantasies. views, for God’s sake,’ ” he remembers. He
neered “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” an upbeat horn- I really don’t know.” became so establishment that he hardened
filled Spanglish earworm that worked on Martin also possessed a rare sense of dis- into Y2K amber: He performed at George W.
both sides of the language divide. He walked cipline and drive for perfection, qualities Bush’s 2001 inauguration, teaching the presi-
into the studio, heard the demo for the first born of his awareness that he was one of the dent-elect how to move his hips onstage for a
photo op, something he would come
to rue. “It was not about politics.
I was like, I’m going to be able to
represent my Latin community. And
those 100 front-cover newspapers
the next day were powerful,” he says.
“When the Iraq War came, I was like,
What’s going on? People ask, Do you
regret it? It needed to happen. Would
you do it today? No.”

T H E R E W E R E O T H E R hazards. Most
importantly, Martin is gay, which
he had admitted as a young adult to
his parents but felt he could not tell
the world. In 1999, on the razor’s
edge of superstardom, even close
friends told him, “This is the end
of your career if you come out,” he
says. “I was the man of the moment
with my ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ and
shaking hips. I was expected to be
something.... I was scared.” He had
been in a relationship with a man
in earlier days, but even that guy
knew Martin had bigger fish to fry.
“We were 20,” he says. “I told him
I’m going to quit everything. Let’s
move to Europe and just be. I don’t
care about this. He goes, ‘Your path
is evident. I see your future. I love
you, but we can’t.’ ”
Every gay man knows what it feels
like to hide, but Martin was doing so
on a scale impossible to comprehend.
“There’s no light in the closet. Every
time I see an adolescent coming out,
I’m like, You’re so lucky, because
you don’t have to deal with this ever
again,” he says. It stings to this day
that he asked family members to
keep the secret. “I brought them
into this,” he says, his eyes crown-
ing with tears that never quite fall.
“I don’t want guilt or shame.
Because only if you’re wearing my
 shirt and pants
Ralph Lauren
Purple Label

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 8 1
“They get to be themselves,”
Martin says of stars today
like Bad Bunny and J Balvin.
“I wish I got that opportunity.”
shoes would you know what I was going
through.” Finally, after the birth of his first
children, he realized he could not pretend.
He published a letter on his website in
2010: “I’m proud to say that I am a fortu-
nate homosexual man.” “It felt amazing. Can
you come out twice, three times?” he says.
“I wish I had done it before. Yesterday is for-
ever beyond our control. There’s nothing you
can do about what we’ve lived.”
Though he still has the polished Colgate
smile used so handily on his ascent, now he
is looser, and whereas once he tried to hide
his private life, now he surprises in how open
he is. He’s enjoying being single. He’s not on
Tinder or Grindr, he says, but is having fun
meeting guys at parties.
In that vein, when I ask him about hints
he has dropped that he has a pronounced
foot fetish, I expect him to be uncomfort-
able; instead, he relishes answering. “I love
feet. I have a foot thing. I love foot massages,
and I would kiss your feet like crazy for
hours. But we all have something. Some have
a fetish of armpits,” he says. Asked if the pho-
tos of his own feet he posts on Instagram are
for fans’ enjoyment, he’s quick to confirm.
“Let’s open the conversation!” he says. “Let
me like this comment that said, ‘I like your
feet.’ I have fans that can draw my feet like
a piece of art. They write to me: ‘Ricky, I can
recognize your feet a mile away.’ ” Imagining
the Ricky Martin of 1999 coming close to this
candor is not possible, and there’s some-
thing gratifying about a star who once kept
important truths locked away feeling so
wide open he leans into oversharing.
Even when the conversation turns more
serious, he doesn’t demur. A lawsuit is linger-
ing in Puerto Rico brought in 2022 by Martin
against his nephew that seeks compensation
for the reputational harm Martin says he suf-
fered after the man sought a protective order
against him and alleged, in part, that the two
had a seven-month-long relationship. Martin
has staunchly denied his nephew’s claims
and the protective order was dismissed after
the nephew withdrew his request during a
court hearing. When I bring it up, Martin is
matter-of-fact. “It’s the worst. The most pain-
ful thing I’ve ever experienced. Thank God
it was baseless,” he says, seemingly unper-
turbed by the turbulence, perhaps resigned
to its place in his life.
8 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
God.” He’d escape with trips to
India, where he was barely recog-
nized, to backpack by train. But
the media glare was persistent:
In a Barbara Walters interview
in 2000, he gave a defeated non-
response when asked if he was
gay. In retrospect, it’s easy to
see that this was invasive, but
then, it was the cost of doing
business. Walters later said
T U C K E D A W A Y on the ground level of his house, she regretted asking the question, but the
Martin keeps a home studio, with walls lined damage was done. “I felt violated,” he says.
in blue velvet. Sitting with him down here, “That gave permission to every journalist to
talking about the past, I realize for a moment ask, ‘Are you gay?’ I was like, I don’t want to
the surreal imprint he’s left on so many peo- talk about this. I don’t want people to know.
ple of my generation. I was 13 in 1999 and I don’t know if it’s internalized homophobia,
watched TRL—the Ed Sullivan Show of the but it was not my moment.” When asked what
Y2K era—every day, glued to the fluctuations would’ve happened had he come out back
of the show’s top 10 chart. I was a Britney guy, in 1999, his answer is, sadly, maybe correct.
but Ricky was gargantuan. There was some- “I don’t think [the success] would’ve been the
thing about him that was undeniably captivat- same,” he says. “There is a force that is coming
ing, like a teen-pop version of the green flash with heavy hate.”
at the end of Daisy’s dock. “We always would In Martin’s mind, the world is better
say when he would come into the trailer, the now, and he’s pleased to say he paved the
whole thing would light up,” says his Palm way. We talk about fellow Puerto Rican
Royale costar Kristen Wiig, describing what Bad Bunny, this generation’s biggest Latin
makes him riveting. “He’s just the person you artist, who came to this very Beverly Hills
want to be with.” home studio to record music with the OG
Thanks to the more democratic (although superstar. Martin takes heart that Bad
algorithmically rigged in its own way) Bunny has not modulated his image, or
nature of social media fame, they don’t (or even sung in English, to “cross over.” He
can’t) make glistening beacons like Martin is exactly who he is, and, from San Juan
anymore. Maybe they shouldn’t: Ricky is to Seoul, everyone loves him for it. “They
here against the odds, considering what’s get to be themselves,” says Martin of the
happened to others who came up in the new crop like Bad Bunny and J Balvin.
same way, namely George Michael, Michael “I wish I got that opportunity. But what I had
Jackson, and Britney Spears. Stars today to go through made what’s happening today
are allowed to be messier—think of the [possible].” He even presented Bad Bunny a
proudly queer Lil Nas X giving Satan a lap GLAAD award for his proud allyship of the
dance—and the Taylor Swifts and Beyoncés LGBTQ community. Clearly, 1999 this is not.
of the world have wrested control and found Settled into an equilibrium, Martin seems
ways to do fame that works. But I can’t help to genuinely enjoy his place in the ecosys-
but wonder if there are struggles, regrets, tem; less famous, maybe, but gratified from
and wounds underneath the surface of projects like Palm Royale. “It’s calmer in a
Martin’s veneer. A recent documentary good way,” he says. He is the underdog again,
explored the dark side of Menudo, with a fresh-eyed ingenue happy to be on set. “If
some members accusing the I’m presented with a great inde-
band’s adult creator of inappro- → pendent film with a $2 budget,
priate behavior, including sex- shirt I will go, because I just want
ual abuse, though Martin says Saint Laurent by any opportunity to act,” he says.
that was not his experience. Anthony Vaccarello He wants film roles and maybe
“I feel horrible. I don’t know pants another stint on Broadway, and
what they went through. It’s Bode there is an earnest, sometimes
not my case,” he says. He says sunglasses quivering sense of excitement in
he drew strength from the chal- Jacques Marie Mage his voice, like a kid before sum-
lenges of those years. “Every mer camp, when he discusses
phase gave me something that grooming by barbara what is ahead. This time, any-
lifted me and didn’t break me.” guillaume using thing is possible: Ricky Martin
He admits that all of this circa 1970. tailoring can finally, after all, be anyone he
wasn’t easy. “You look back to by alvard bazikyan. wants to be. Most importantly, he
set design by allison
Elvis. To Jim Morrison. All these can be Ricky Martin.
freeman. produced
legends that aren’t with us,” he by annee elliot
says. “It’s a roller coaster at the productions, ALEX FRANK is a writer in
top. It’s easy to think that you’re los angeles. New York.
8 4 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
Saudi Arabia is spending an unfathomable fortune to lure the biggest stars of
global football (Ronaldo! Benzema! Neymar!) to its upstart league.
So GQ ventured to the kingdom to discover what the gambit represents.
Is this the future of the world’s most popular sport?
The vanguard of sportswashing?
Or something way bigger?

By Oliver
Franklin-Wallis
Photographs by Benjamin McMahon
 ONSIDER, BEFORE WE begin, that not long
ago, the grassy pitch of Riyadh’s Al-Awwal
Park was desert, and even before that, it
was underwater. Around 250 million years
ago—give or take—much of what we call the
Arabian Peninsula was submerged beneath
an ancient sea that teemed with life: algae,
diatoms, and sundry other prehistoric crit-
ters in their trillions. When these creatures
died, their bodies littered the ocean floor and
became trapped. Bedrock accreted. Tectonic
plates drifted, smashed together. And, under
pressure and heat and time, those organisms
transformed into the substance we now
know as crude oil.
Whole eras pass. The dinosaurs come and
go. Continents break up, sea levels fall, and a new landmass rises
from the waves, eventually giving way to an inhospitable desert. The
resourceful Homo sapiens that do make it their home toil and quarrel
until the early 20th century, when much of the territory falls into
the hands of the warrior they call Ibn Saud, who proclaims his fief-
dom the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Then, fortune: Prospectors
discover that the bygone ocean has left behind some of the richest
oil-and-gas reserves anywhere on the planet, making the ruling fam-
ily of this fledgling desert kingdom among the wealthiest human
beings alive.
The point being that places change—slowly, continuously, and, on
rare occasion, all at once. Oh, and that for the craziness of what fol-
lows to make sense, perhaps keep in mind that while money doesn’t
grow on trees, it does, in a few places, flow freely from the earth.
Present day. Where once was only rock and dirt now stands a
state-of-the-art soccer stadium, and on this balmy Friday night in
Riyadh—a game night in the Saudi Pro League—fans of the home
side, Al-Nassr, are arriving en masse. Outside the stadium, a group
of what might be the world’s most polite soccer ultras have formed
a human tunnel and are singing songs, handing out candy and free
jerseys. On the concourse, fans wearing yellow-and-blue scarves over
traditional Saudi thobes and abayas queue for coffee and popcorn,
chattering excitedly about the chance to see their new superstar.
Even now, they can’t believe it: Cristiano Ronaldo—the five-time
Champions League winner, and contender for soccer’s best-ever
player, here! In Saudi Arabia!
“The GOAT! The Greatest of All Time, come to my favorite club?”
Ghaida Khaled, an Al-Nassr fan, says, her eyes gleaming from behind
her niqab. “History is written right now!”
The fans here in Saudi—like the wider soccer world—are still in
disbelief over Ronaldo’s arrival, even a year on since the Portuguese
forward left Europe to sign a contract reportedly worth over
$200 million annually with Al-Nassr, a midsize club in the Saudi Pro
League. While fading stars have been tempted to the Middle East
over the years with offers of palaces and Scrooge McDuck money,
none had ever been as celebrated, or as decorated. Whereas another
player might have been written off as a 37-year-old chasing one last
payday, this was something bigger.
After decades of isolation, Saudi Arabia, now under its crown
prince, Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS), is undertaking
a rapid transformation, as part of a national effort to reshape the
kingdom into a global economic power and wean itself off its finan-
cial dependence on oil. As part of this effort, called Vision 2030,
the government has spent billions on tourism-friendly projects like
Neom, a futuristic new megacity on the Red Sea, as well as making
audacious investments in sports—including golf, Formula 1, box-
ing, tennis, and the America’s Cup. Critics have called its sports
investment sportswashing: an attempt to use sports’ mass appeal to
distract from the regime’s human rights abuses. MBS has dismissed
8 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
those claims, saying, “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP
by way of 1 percent, then I will continue doing sportswashing.”
Either way, soccer, with its unmatched global audience, is seen as the
Saudis’ greatest prize. And so the regime has set out to transform the
Pro League from a competitive backwater into a rival for England’s
Premier League or Spain’s La Liga as one of the best in the world.
Ronaldo turned out to be just the opening salvo. Last June, six
months after his signing, the Public Investment Fund, which con-
trols Saudi Arabia’s sizable sovereign wealth, took a majority stake
in four of the kingdom’s biggest soccer teams: Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad,
Al-Ahli, and Al-Hilal. The investment triggered a wild shopping
spree. Al-Ittihad signed the French striker Karim Benzema, then
holder of the Ballon d’Or, from Real Madrid. Riyad Mahrez, a reign-
ing Champions League winner at Manchester City, signed for Al-Ahli.
Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mané joined Ronaldo and a growing cast of
all-stars at Al-Nassr. Every other day it seemed a player from one of
Europe’s most esteemed clubs was boarding a flight to the kingdom
to sign for teams that, just a few weeks earlier, most of them had
probably never heard of.
While European clubs have, from time to time, spent millions
assembling Super Teams—Real Madrid during its two galácticos eras,
or present-day Manchester City, for example—this was something
new. Nobody had ever tried to sign a whole league before. The whole
thing seemed to pose deeper, existential questions about sports,
human rights, and fandom. Would players really want to move to
an unknown team, in an unknown league, in a country not exactly
known for its warm welcome? Would anyone actually watch the
games? Perhaps more to the point: Should they?
IF YOU’RE THINKING that Saudi Arabia seems a somewhat odd place
for a league dedicated to the world’s most popular grass sport—well,
you have a point. It’s not just that summer temperatures can reach
120 degrees Fahrenheit, or that part of the country is blanketed by
the biggest continuous sand desert on earth. The kingdom lacks a
single river, so it draws much of its water—for, say, irrigating soccer
pitches—from the sea, whereupon it must be desalinated in huge
industrial plants. Buildings tend to be aggressively air-conditioned.
When outdoor sports are played at all, they tend to be late at night,
after dark; even then, temperatures on the pitch in the early season
can hit over 100.
Still, the first impression you get upon arriving in Riyadh, the Saudi
capital, is not of heat, but of cranes. The city is forested with them, as
if a sketch artist has roughed out a skyline and everyone else is now
tasked with filling it in. The tinnitus hum of construction is every-
where. You can’t seem to drive three blocks without encountering sig-
nage teasing some new development—an impossibly tall skyscraper,
a new entertainment district, an upscale housing complex illustrated
with 3D mock-ups of smiling, uncovered people of all races and gen-
ders living in harmony. Along the brand-new highways, images of the
crown prince and his father, King Salman, stare down from billboards,
looking stoic. It’s tradition in Saudi to display a portrait of the king
in your home or business, so everywhere you go—shops, restaurants,
random hotel lobbies—you find yourself under his beneficent gaze,
which, having considered the ramifications of objecting, I, of course,
find a totally chill and non-authoritarian-state thing to do.
But then, this is the new Saudi Arabia: a freer, generally more
easygoing place to be. Since MBS took de facto control in 2017, life
has changed immeasurably. Women can now go out with their hair
uncovered, play sports unrestricted, even drive. The religious police
that once roamed the streets harassing citizens have been stripped
of their power. At the same time, MBS has solidified control of the
security services, imprisoning enemies, and at one point locking up
hundreds of the country’s elite, including some of his relatives and
courtiers, converting the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton into a luxury prison.
Justice Square, once known as Chop Chop Square, for being the
 Ronaldo (in yellow jersey) has made games at Al-Awwal Park Stadium the hottest ticket in Riyadh.
official site of public beheadings, has been redeveloped as a charm-
ing pedestrian plaza, complete with a bookstore and hipster coffee
shop; the only hint of its gruesome past is the large covered drain at
its center. (The executions still happen, but out of sight.)
The Riyadh headquarters of the Saudi Pro League lie in Al Falah, a
dusty neighborhood of sandblasted apartment buildings and empty
lots in the north of the city. I’d expected grandeur, but the office itself
is typical of any sports organization: all world maps and soccer par-
aphernalia, and staffed by an assortment of young and smiling faces.
(A publicist tells me the HQ will soon be moving to a nicer building.)
The only real sign we’re not in Paris or Geneva is the stack of prayer
mats in the corner.
The architect of the SPL’s superstar-acquisition strategy is Michael
Emenalo, a charming, slimly built Nigerian who previously worked
as technical director of Chelsea, at a time when the London club’s
recruitment was the envy of world soccer. Mohamed Salah, Kevin De
Bruyne, Eden Hazard—Emenalo signed them all. He was persuaded
to join the Saudi project, he says, by a “masterful” seven-minute pitch
from the Saudi sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Saud,
who explained to him the country’s ambition: to turn the SPL into one
of the world’s top-10 soccer leagues. “This has not been done just to
get hype,” Emenalo says, taking a seat behind a desk. “It’s been done
to have a lasting impact. And for it to have lasting impact, it means
that it won’t operate as just a project for the league, it will operate as a
project for the development of football in its entirety in the kingdom.”
Reshaping the SPL was not an overnight decision. Long before
Ronaldo signed, the league commissioned Deloitte, an official told
me, to draw up a plan for overhauling the country’s soccer infra-
structure; Ronaldo just accelerated things. Still, Emenalo is the first
to admit that last summer got slightly out of hand. “I wouldn’t say
that we did the best job in terms of controlling the narrative,” he says.
That might be an understatement. The money on offer was, even
by soccer’s standards, absolutely bananas. Benzema was said to
be getting $218 million per year. (To put that in context, Stephen
Curry’s NBA-leading deal with the Golden State Warriors is worth
$51.9 million a year.) Even lesser stars were fetching huge sums:
Former Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson was supposedly earn-
ing about $450,000 a week. Then there were the perks, with play-
ers reportedly being offered houses complete with staff, free flights,
schooling for their kids, and luxury cars with their own drivers.
Before the Brazilian megastar Neymar signed with Al-Hilal, British
tabloids claimed that his contract demands had included a Bentley,
an Aston Martin, a Lamborghini, and a never-ending supply of acai
juice. When Neymar eventually did sign, the Saudis sent a private
Boeing 747 reportedly owned by a prince to convey him to Riyadh,
where he was met by delirious crowds.
Somehow even more unbelievable were the players the SPL
failed to sign. Al-Ittihad reportedly offered about $190 million for
Liverpool’s Mo Salah. The club also tried to prize Kevin De Bruyne,
arguably the world’s best midfielder, from Manchester City. Al-Hilal
supposedly offered a package worth more than $1.5 billion to Lionel
Messi—reportedly already making approximately $25 million as
a tourism ambassador for the kingdom—before he spurned the
Saudi League in favor of MLS’s Inter Miami. When Messi turned
them down, Al-Hilal unsuccessfully offered Paris Saint-Germain
a world-record $332 million transfer fee for Kylian Mbappé. “We
needed to get everybody’s attention,” Emenalo says.
The challenge at the time was that some of the Saudi clubs were
not yet well equipped to scout superstars, or negotiate with pow-
erful agents. “They started spending very quickly,” Emenalo says.
“As time went on, it became clear that some, I believe, could have
signed a really legacy-defining player for their clubs. But they had
spent their budget.”
When you’re attempting to transform the soccer culture of an
entire nation, there’s more to scouting prospective players than key
passes or expected goals. “The number one KPI is performance on the
pitch,” Emenalo says. “After that it’s: What kind of societal impact is
this player going to have? We’re talking about cultural impact within
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When kids tune in, we have to make
sure that their parents are not scared that the player is going to mis-
behave.” The aim, he says, is not only to sign superstars but “ambas-
sadors, to tell good stories about what we’re doing here, so that other
people want to come and join.”
When a club wants to sign a star player, Emenalo and his depart-
ment review the terms. If the team has the money, and they decide
the player is worth the fee, the process is simple. “If it’s a superstar,
it’s easy, yes, a no-brainer,” he says. After that, he says, the deal can be
scrutinized by higher authorities. “If it gets to the stakeholders above
M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 8 7
my pay grade, or Saad’s pay grade [SPL interim CEO Saad Al-Lazeez],
and if they want to review it, they can do so.”
Who those stakeholders are, or where the transfer budgets ulti-
mately come from, nobody seems eager to say. The league’s financial
structure is complicated. The SPL’s title sponsor, the real estate devel-
oper ROSHN (chaired by the crown prince) is owned by the Public
Investment Fund (also chaired by the crown prince). A number of
the league’s other major sponsors are also owned in part or run by
the government. And while the government, through the PIF, holds
a truly dizzying portfolio of investments, its fortunes are inevitably
underpinned by the kingdom’s oil reserves, currently thought to com-
prise some 260 billion barrels. As long as the world is still hooked on
oil, the money might as well be limitless.
At least officially, however, the plan is that the SPL will eventually
pull its own weight. “The strategy isn’t where you get the money, as
long as you ensure that you’re monetizing [the league],” the SPL’s
chief operating officer, a former WWE executive named Carlo Nohra,
tells me. “But most significantly, the influx of players has delivered
the eyeballs, which has made it a viable product for us to go to mar-
ket, whether it’s regional, domestic, or international.”
That so many players declined the bounteous riches on offer
underlines the difficulties facing the Saudi project. After the young
Spanish midfielder Gabri Veiga signed for Al-Ahli, the Real Madrid
legend Toni Kroos posted that it was “embarrassing,” and told the
German edition of Sports Illustrated that he would never move to
Saudi Arabia because of the lack of human rights. Other stars made
no secret of the fact they’d turned down Saudi offers.
And let’s face it, Saudi Arabia doesn’t exactly have the greatest
track record on human rights. Its less-than-excellent reputation has
only worsened since 2018, when Saudi operatives murdered and
dismembered the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi
inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul. While US intelligence
agencies have concluded that MBS approved the operation that
killed Khashoggi, the crown prince himself has denied giving the
order, telling The Atlantic—not entirely reassuringly—that “if that’s
the way we did things, Khashoggi would not even be among the top
1,000 people on the list.” Despite recent reforms, it’s still a coun-
try where homosexual acts are illegal, alcohol is forbidden, and
where dissidents are routinely jailed or executed. As the golfer Phil
Mickelson said in an interview, shortly before taking a Saudi con-
tract reported to have been worth around $200 million, “they’re
scary motherfuckers.”
Even so, by the end of August, 94 overseas players had agreed to
join the Saudi Pro League, at a combined cost of some $957 million,
according to Deloitte Sports Business Group. Attracted by their new
stars, dozens of broadcasters, including Fox Sports, signed up to air
league matches internationally.
If players did have concerns, Emenalo says, they didn’t tell him.
“Nobody ever asked the question ‘Am I going to be safe?’ That didn’t
come up,” he says. “Maybe they asked their agents.”
IN A WAY, the number of players who did end up accepting the Saudi
money shouldn’t be that surprising; given the geography of the global
game, the idea that an athlete would end up in the Middle East is not
much weirder than playing for a team in Manchester, or Munich. As
Fábio Henrique Tavares, the Brazilian midfielder better known as
Fabinho, tells me, “On the pitch, everyone speaks the same language.”
The muezzin is calling the faithful to prayer when I arrive at
Al-Ittihad’s training complex in Jeddah, on the kingdom’s western
coast. The summer heat has ebbed away and the breeze is rolling
in off the Red Sea. Inside an empty conference room, the club—per-
haps unused to dealing with journalists—has set up a little table with
national flags, as if preparing for a visit by a foreign dignitary.
Fabinho joined Al-Ittihad from Liverpool in July, having won
every major title in England, and before that the French Ligue 1 with
8 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
AS Monaco. “I think because I’m used to moving [to] different coun-
tries, different cultures, it was easy for me and my wife,” he says.
When Fabinho’s agent first told him about Al-Ittihad’s interest,
he was unsure. He texted a friend who had played in Saudi, Hélder
Costa, who reassured him about the lifestyle. Then he saw the con-
tract offer. “A really good contract,” he says, grinning.
He, his wife, and their baby have been living in a hotel downtown
while their new place is being finished. “I still need to buy the fur-
niture,” he says. His fellow new Al-Ittihad signings Jota and N’Golo
Kanté are, he says, both living in the hotel too.
Such an arrangement isn’t uncommon. Ronaldo, when he moved
to Riyadh, was reported to have stayed at a $300,000-a-month
Kingdom Suite at the Four Seasons, before moving to a private com-
pound in the suburbs. Some of the Brits at Al-Ettifaq, based in the
eastern city of Dammam, were said to have moved their families over
the border in Bahrain, where there are better international schools
and alcohol is legal.
There are things you have to get used to, Fabinho says. The roads
here, which are crazy. The club gifted him a Mercedes-Benz when
he arrived, but the first day he drove he got into a bender and so
now travels with a driver—which might explain why, when Karim
Benzema arrives later here at the training ground driving a yellow
Lamborghini Urus, he is accompanied by the flashing lights of what
appears to be a police escort.
The heat is undeniable, particularly in summer. “Sometimes you
cannot put the intensity [in] that we had in England, because of
the weather,” Fabinho says. The heat means training happens in the
evening, instead of the morning, as it does in Europe. Doing well in
the SPL means competition in the Asian equivalent of the Champions
League, which requires traveling to play in countries like Uzbekistan
and Iran, where the facilities can leave a lot to be desired.
Otherwise? It’s not too bad. A little harder to see friends and fam-
ily back in Brazil. “We are used to being, I can say, more alone,” he
says. “Sometimes my wife said some things, the way she dressed
maybe needed to change. But the way I see it, the way I live [here]
is amazing.”
Some players have found the change liberating. Allan Saint-
Maximin, a French winger, joined Jeddah’s Al-Ahli this last summer
from Newcastle United (a team now majority owned by the PIF). The
nocturnal schedule, he explains, allows him to use the daytime hours
to focus on other pursuits. “I have my brand. I have a board game.
Clothing, jewelry, many things,” Saint-Maximin says, lounging on a
sofa in the Al-Ahli training ground, across town. “I’m not the type of
person to like, just stay on the sofa. That’s not me.”
THEN THERE’S THE MONEY. Saint-Maximin grew up poor, on the
outskirts of Paris. “It was difficult for me to be able to go to buy stuff,
to be able to have a normal life like the people who have money, you
know? I was worried about what I was going to eat,” he says. So he’s
less coy than some about talking about it. “I asked [for] the money I
wanted. It was a big fight, but they gave me exactly what I asked, and
what I think I deserve to have.” Tabloids put Saint-Maximin’s Al-Ahli
contract at $12.7 million per year. Those reports aren’t accurate, he
says, but that’s kind of beside the point. “In your work, if they come
and say, ‘Okay, we’ll give you 50 million in three years,’ it’s impossible
to not be happy about it. So for sure, I feel good here. Not only about
the money but about everything—the life, the people. Everything.”
Each player moved for their own reasons. “Of course, it’s a
lot of money, but as a football player you’re always making good
money,” Aleksandar Mitrović, a Serbian striker for Al-Hilal,
tells me. Mitrović signed last summer after six seasons with the
London club Fulham, bouncing between the Premier League and
the Championship, England’s second tier. “Don’t get me wrong,
I loved the club. But after six years, it’s hard, you know? I play in
the Premier League, get relegated, get promoted. I was two times
top scorer in the Championship. Broke the [goal-scoring] record,”
he says. “I never had a chance to play for top teams…. So when this
club came, it was giving me something that I always wanted.”
Sure, it’s different. But you know what? Right now, Al-Hilal are
top of the league, and Mitrović is second in the scoring charts. “I
love it here, to be honest,” he says. “So far so good.”
Not every player has settled in as easily. In January, there were
widespread reports that some of the league’s new superstars—includ-
ing Benzema and Al-Ahli’s Roberto Firmino—were unhappy and try-
ing to secure moves back to Europe. The English midfielder Jordan
Henderson terminated his lucrative contract with Al-Ettifaq to move
to Ajax, in the Netherlands, after just six months, supposedly strug-
gling with the low quality of play, the paltry fan attendance, and the
challenges of adapting to life in the country.
Still, all the players I meet seem happy, and contented. Of course,
it’d be easy to write off their comments to me as inauthentic, or
practiced; after all, in a country where even tweeting something
critical of the royals can result in a jail sentence—or worse—it’s
not like they’re going to say anything negative. Hell, even asking the
players about Saudi’s human rights record could be seen as defaming
the government and therefore a jailable offense, and so, being a cow-
ard, and not wanting anyone else to say anything that might get them
in trouble, I don’t even ask. But then, that’s the power of authoritar-
ianism: Silence enough people and the rest will silence themselves.
Even among all-star
Brazil’s Alex Telles,
Ronaldo has been the
season’s best player.
NEARLY A YEAR after signing Ronaldo, the Saudis actually built him
a shrine. The CR7 Signature Museum is located in Boulevard City,
one of Riyadh’s new shopping-and-entertainment districts, where
for a small fee fans in thobes and Al-Nassr scarves can gaze at a hall
of Ronaldo’s real trophies, take photos with a dubiously convincing
waxwork, and even measure their own shooting power and vertical
jump against Cristiano’s, before heading home with a signed poster.
I don’t see anybody beat Ronaldo’s record, but then, most of the
people trying are children.
If you want to see the new Saudi Arabia, there’s no better place
than Boulevard City. The place is overwhelming: 220 acres of
Western chains and American fast food joints like Burger King,
Baskin-Robbins, Chuck E. Cheese. There’s a go-kart track and a “vir-
tual reality arena.” We walk through a giant, brightly-lit imitation
of Times Square to Boulevard Studios, where visitors are welcomed
on a huge red carpet leading past an homage to the Warner Bros.
tower and the World of Barbie to the pièce de résistance: a genuine
Disney castle, the first in the Middle East, for which kids are queu-
ing excitedly. All this in a country in which cinemas were banned
as recently as 2017.
Nearby, someone manning a fairground game yells, in perfect
English, “All right, guys, we have a winner!”
Is this not, reader, the meaning of progress? Families walking
hand in hand, smiling, buying happily the best of what the Free
Market has to offer? It’s strangely beau-
tiful. It’s also deeply uncanny. Not to see
Saudi teens queuing inside Starbucks
teammates like
or giggling outside the Five Nights at
Freddy’s experience—but the undeni-
able physical sensation that this is all
so precarious. One can only imagine the
energy consumption, the sheer feat of
engineering required to build this place.
Everything glows. In the food court, a
giant fountain periodically puts on musi-
cal light shows. We are in the desert.
Beside Boulevard City stands Boulevard
World, a theme park that features the
world’s largest man-made lagoon and a
re-creation of the Pyramids and a giant
Chinese temple and what appears to be a
smaller version of the Las Vegas Sphere.
Nearby, workers are putting the finishing
touches on Al-Hilal’s new 26,000-seater
Kingdom Arena, which is air-conditioned
and features a retractable roof, allow-
ing sporting events to be played even in
extreme heat. Man 1, Nature 0.
But then, this is the kingdom’s power.
While we schmucks in the West are freak-
ing out about climate change, here, growth
continues unabated. All of this is running
on oil and gas that—despite the country’s
public climate commitments—Saudi’s
future relies on perpetuating demand for.
The money comes out of the ground.
At the Boulevard, I notice that every-
thing is being watched by countless CCTV
cameras; I’ve been told the system is so
cutting-edge it could spot someone who
so much as clenches their fist. True or not,
that’s either a comfort in a country with a
history of terror threats, or a troubling alle-
gory for something. According to Amnesty
International, (continued on page 106)
M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 8 9
 The blue-collar icon
of American spirit is
hitting new fashion
heights, so we invited
Dwyane Wade a righteously stylish
crew to pull on the flyest
Hall of Fame
hooper and
jeans—and vests, jackets,
entrepreneur and kimono chore
coats—of the season.
D-Wade didn’t slow
down after hanging By S A MUEL HINE
up his jersey Photographs by
in 2019. It’s about
T HOM A S W HI T E SIDE
“trying to create
the vision I have Styled by
for myself,” he says. JON TIETZ
Now, he and his
wife, Gabrielle Daniel Moon + Co
Union, run Proudly, (opposite page)
a baby care line,
plus he has a Colorist to
wine brand and the stars
a clothinglabel— FROM LEF T
and he just Behind almost every ON K AYL A CASEY
launched a podcast celeb with a radical shirt
in January. He’s also hair transformation Chrome Hearts
a Fashion Week is Daniel Moon, corset
regular. (Donatella who wields dye, Miaou
Versace is just bleach, and brushes
“DV” to Wade.) with the skill of ON SHEA SCARPA
Before this GQ an abstract painter. jacket
shoot, he woke up “We’re color Feng Chen
early for yoga. “When shamans,” says the Wang
I was an athlete, 23-year salon guru
ON DANIEL MOON
I was up before who gave Kid Cudi
vest and jeans
my competition,” a tennis ball ’do
Givenchy
he says. “Now, and popularized
same thing.” sherbet-colored hair ON NICOLE REBER
in Hollywood. jacket
vintage jeans He and his stylish Loro Piana
Levi’s from Front squad are still the
General Store best ambassadors ON OLIVIA BALOGH
for wavy hues. corset
Moon’s tip? Dress it Miaou
up. “Multicolor has jeans
a bad reputation for Diesel
being too punky,”
he says. “[But] I wear
suits and ties.
I love seeing it in a
sophisticated way.”
 -

Starr shares with me one example in par-

ticular, when the Fab Four strolled across
Abbey Road. Ringo, John, and a shoeless
Paul wore suits, while George brought
up the rear in a dark denim shirt and
groovy flared jeans. The composition was
impromptu. “That’s what we put on that
day,” the Beatles rhythm man says with a
shrug. “Paul looked like he was looking for
a job,” he says, laughing. But denim-clad
George? “George,” he says, “was just cool.”
¶ What was true then is still true now: The
perfect pair of blue jeans is the epitome
of cool. It is a style and symbol that tran-
scends time and all of the things that divide
us. “When it comes to denim, now we’re all
seeing eye to eye,” says Hall of Fame hooper
Dwyane Wade. “She can rock it. He can rock
it. They can rock it.” Wade and Starr are two
of more than 20 international denim aficio-
nados GQ recently gathered together in a
photo studio in Los Angeles. Everybody was
asked to bring their own favorite jeans, and
they brought plenty of their own stories,
too, about the intense emotional connec-
tions we have to these workaday garments.
¶ Past Lives leading man Teo Yoo recalls
how as a German-born Korean kid living in
Cologne, he was captivated by denim-filled
spaghetti Westerns on television. (Talk
about a cross-cultural mash-up.) “In South
Africa, denim is everything,” says amapiano
pop star Tyla, who keenly understands den-
im’s universal coming-of-age connection.
“I remember being young, I would beg my be made in
California. “For me,
parents for 501s.” ¶ Supermodel Winnie
it never was about
Harlow is from Toronto and has been clothing production,
rocking Canadian tuxedos for her entire it was about
life. “I’m a denim enthusiast,” she says. storytelling,” says
Turnstile bassist Franz Lyons enthusias- Linnetz, who is also
tically destroys his denim: “You get one writing a feature
film about college
fresh pair, you wear ’em until dust and then
life that’s set in the
you cop another one,” he says, sporting a fire. What else are you going to do?” ¶ What ’70s. “And so it’s
pair of patched-up denim double-knees. emerged in the studio is a portrait of the super exciting to
“I did almost all the repairs myself until two wide world of denim, a fabric that’s both work with American
years ago, and then I needed somebody that classic and always ripe for reinvention, artisans to create
was nice with the machine.” ¶ Atlanta rap that’s both universal and deeply personal. something that feels
more authentic as I
superstar Gunna tells me he’s been trying Looking at the pale vintage Tom Ford–era discover what I want
his hand at making his own jeans. Why? His Gucci jeans Starr wore for his portrait, he to say.”
favorite pair of distressed designer denim says he’s reminded of the indigo uniform of
went missing on a recent trip. “I loved those his youth, when he was a boy in Liverpool vintage quilt from
jeans,” he says. “I tried to find them, I tried wearing jeans to the factory and the Cavern Melet Mercantile
to go buy ’em again. I couldn’t find them, Club. “Well, now it’s fashionable,” he says. subject’s own jeans
so I was just like, I’m going to make me “So I’ve got to go back to the closet and get ERL
some jeans like them, because they were the old ones out.”

9 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
 O P E N I N G PAG ES , A L S O O N DW YA N E WA D E : T- S H I RT, CA LV I N K L E I N ; B O OTS , B O OT STA R ; H AT, ST Y L I ST ’ S OW N ; B R AC E L E T, M I A N S A I . A L S O O N S H E A S CA R PA : TA N K TO P,
D I O R . A L L J E W E L RY, S U B J E CT S ’ OW N . O P P O S I T E PA G E , A L S O O N E L I R U S S E L L L I N N E T Z : H I S OW N T- S H I RT S , S H O E S , A N D S K AT E C H A I N , E R L . A L S O O N W I N N I E H A R LOW :
SUNGLASSES, JACQUES MARIE MAGE; EARRINGS, MARINE SERRE; BRACELET (ON LEFT WRIST), SUBJECT’S OWN; BRACELET (ON RIGHT WRIST), DAVID YURMAN.

M A R C H
2 0 2 4
vest
Bally
jeans
a villain.”
becoming a

an action-film

Acne Studios
I decided that I

to see myself as
a superhero—or
different kind of

she says. “When

G Q . C O M
my skin from the

I really wanted to
wanted to go into
really important,”

Harlow says she’s

buff. “I would love

just slap my name
SPF line Cay Skin,

do something that
which she founded

on some products.”

to jump into acting.

force in beauty with

the skin care space,

was true to me—not

in 2022. “Protecting

She’s also preparing

sun has always been

9 3
 Tyla

Rising pop dynamo

At the vanguard of
South Africa’s
amapiano scene,
22-year-old Tyla
launched one of the
most viral songs of
2023 with “Water,”
the jazzy dance
track that turned
TikTok upside down.
Now, she’s prepping
her first album, sure
to include plenty
more sounds to
gyrate to. “I’ve been
working on the
album for two years
now,” she says. “I’ve
grown a lot and I’m
super proud of it.
I just feel like it’s
going to be the start
of something
completely new.”

jacket and skirt

Marine Serre

ALSO ON T YL A: E ARRINGS AND BELLY RING, SUBJECT ’S OWN. OPP OSITE PAGE, ALSO ON RINGO
STARR: T-SHIRT, SUNGL AS SES, EARRINGS, NECKL ACE, AND BUT TONS, SUBJECT ’S OWN.

9 4 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
Ringo Starr

Beatle

number one,

Band on the

his fellow
musicians.
“I love being
in a band,”
he says.
“If you can

all night.”

jacket

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 9 5
 9 6
G Q . C O M
M A R C H
2 0 2 4
ALSO ON A ARON DONALD: BOOTS, RED WING HERITAGE; BR ACELE T, SUBJECT ’S OWN. ALSO ON COOPER KUPP: BOOTS,
FRYE FROM GREG L AUREN; RING, SUBJECT ’S OWN. OPPOSITE PAGE, ALSO ON GREG L AUREN: WATCH, SUBJECT ’S OWN.
Aaron Donald
(opposite page,
left), Cooper Kupp
(opposite page,
right), Greg Lauren

LA Rams
defensive
lineman; LA
Rams wide
receiver; designer

When Kupp, the

Super Bowl MVP
wide receiver,
walked into the
locker room one day
wearing pieces by
artisanal menswear
specialist Greg
Lauren, his Rams
teammate (and
future first-ballot
Hall of Famer)
Donald immediately
noticed—he’d
been wearing and
collecting the brand
for years. “Once AD
starts saying he
knows what you’re
wearing, you’re in,”
says Kupp, who
picked up his
buddy’s obsession.
“Everything is done
by hand,” explains
Donald. “That alone
is mind-blowing.”
The duo have since
become pals with
Lauren, who
considers them the
perfect clients and
ambassadors. “It’s
a blast working with
these two because
I try to make
everything unique
and personal, [but
only] when it’s on
the person who’s
wearing it does it
really come to life,”
he says. “It should
amplify something
that’s already
inside—and they
happen to both be
pretty heroic.”

ON A ARON
DONALD, COOPER
KUPP, AND GREG
L AUREN
all clothing
Greg Lauren

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 9 7
 9 8
shirt

jeans
actor

jacket

Closed
Teo Yoo

Dior Men

Balenciaga
call sheet. In
and raised in

G Q . C O M
scenario. And I
Breakthrough

storm, what you

and finding that

magic going on,”

garnered Oscars

this perfect little

was some sort of
own identity as a
Teo Yoo was born

hope for with any

curious about my

onscreen. People
lovesickness that
diasporic Korean,
to Seoul to ply his

think it translates
part of myself, that
Cologne, Germany,

in London and New

York before moving

craft. “I was always

feel the chemistry.”

then studied acting

Yoo says. “It felt like

buzz. On set, “There

production, a dream

M A R C H
2 0 2 4
A L S O O N T E O YO O : H AT A N D B E LT, ST Y L I ST ’ S OW N . O P P O S I T E PAG E , A L S O O N D O N N G U Y E N : T- S H I RT, S U BJ E CT ’ S OW N ; S U BJ E CT ’ S OW N S H O ES , G U C C I ; S U BJ E CT ’ S OW N
WATCH, ROLEX . ALSO ON ATIBA JEFFERSON: T-SHIRT, SUBJECT ’S OWN; SUBJECT ’S OWN SNEAKERS, LOUIS VUIT TON X NIKE; SUBJECT ’S OWN HAT, FRED SEGAL X NEW
E R A C A P X M L B ; J E W E L RY, S U B J E CT ’ S OW N . A L S O O N F R A N Z LYO N S : S U B J E CT ’ S OW N H O O D I E , C A R P E T C O M PA N Y; S U B J E CT ’ S OW N T- S H I RT, S U P R E M E ; S U B J E CT ’ S OW N
S N E A K E R S , S U P R E M E X N I K E ; S U B J E CT ’ S OW N H AT, N E W E R A C A P ; S U B J E CT ’ S OW N S U N G L A S S E S , O F F -W H I T E ; J E W E L RY, S U B J E CT ’ S OW N .
He and
Nguyen
(a.k.a.
“Nuge”)

Nguyen

jacket

jeans

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 9 9
 Gunna

Rapper and style

lord

After being released

from jail in
December 2022,
Gunna has basically
become a walking
self-help book.

sound.
“It’s like

that the

jacket

Ami
jeans

Men’s

1 2 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 2 2 4
 Kristen Kiehnle

It girl and model

Kiehnle is a model
and former UCLA
volleyball star
keeping the dreamy
analog SoCal
lifestyle alive. She
drives a vintage
Westfalia camper
K R I ST E N K I E H N L E : B R A A N D N E C K L AC E , S U BJ E CT ’ S OW N ; B OX E RS , A N D B E LT, ST Y L I ST ’ S OW N .

van and is launching

O P P O S I T E PA G E , A L S O O N G U N N A : T- S H I RT, S U N G L A S S E S A N D J E W E L RY, S U B J E CT ’ S OW N . O N

season two of her

swim line with
Jack’s Surfboards,
inspired by the
golden age of LA
surf and skate
culture. “I’m
obsessed with the
vintage ’90s Roxy
aesthetic—that
natural beach girl,
no makeup, just
salty hair,” she says.
“I feel like we’re
losing that touch.”
There are other
swimsuits, she
notes, for LA girls
who want to feel
“sexy and cute.”
Her designs, on
the other hand, are
“not necessarily
for Instagram.”

jacket
Prada
shorts,
stylist’s own

M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 1 0 1
 Isabella Lalonde

Designer and
artist

“As an artist, I’m

just a trickster,”
says Lalonde. The
Beepy Bella founder
has cast a spell on
us all with her funky
pearl necklaces
and imaginative
accessories,
souvenirs from
her singular fantasy
world of fairy
tales, frogs, and
mushrooms. Now,
her company is
sprouting in
mystical new
directions, with
aims for ready-to-
wear and collabs
with heady brands
like Guayakí Yerba
Mate that will
help her explore
different motifs.
“I started out with
mushrooms and
frogs and fairies,
and I still base
myself within
those seeds that
I planted,” she
says. “But now I feel
like I’m gardening
something that
is much more

SNEAKERS, NIKE. ALSO ON VERDY: SUBJECT ’S OWN SNEAKERS, AIR JORDAN; HAT AND NECKL ACE, SUBJECT ’S OWN.
A L S O O N I S A B E L L A L A LO N D E : S H I RT, M I AO U ; B E LT, C O L L I N A ST R A DA ; S U BJ E CT ’ S OW N H AT, B E E P Y B E L L A ; P U RS E ,
diverse than I

SUBJECT ’S OWN. OPP OSITE PAGE, ALSO ON Z ACK BIA: T-SHIRT AND NECKL ACE, SUBJECT ’S OWN; SUBJECT ’S OWN
originally planned.”

jeans
R13

for dwyane wade:

barbering by
christopher smith;
skin by hee soo kwon
using la mer. for
gunna: barbering by
bryan lee; hair styling
by aliky williams. all
other men: hair by
will carrillo using
balmain hair couture;
skin by hee soo
kwon using la mer.
for winnie harlow:
hair by anittria
wicker; makeup by
adam burrell using
rouge dior. for all
other women: hair
by takuya sugawara
at walter schupfer
management;
makeup by
hadia kabir at
walter schupfer
management.
manicures by yoko
sakakura using
chanel. set design
by bryn bowen.
produced by helena
martel seward at
lolly would.

1 2 2 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 2 2 4
 O U R L EG ACY
C O N T I N U E D F RO M PAG E 5 0
in Australia—before returning to Sweden
and meeting again, finding they’d developed
shared interests, particularly in clothes. They
decided to try their hand at design, and in
2005 they released a collection of T-shirts
using Nying’s family’s vinyl printing equip-
ment to make samples.
“We developed the quality fast and then
when we picked up speed, we just learned
garment category by category,” says Hallin.
For a couple years they drove around
Scandinavia with a duffel bag full of T-shirts
and sold to stores directly.
“We had one or two stores in Copenhagen,
the best ones in Stockholm, the best ones in
Gothenburg, not so much more than that,”
Hallin says. And they had grown to the point
where it made sense to bring on a third part-
ner. Richardos Klarén joined in 2007. He’d
been working in sales at Stockholm-based
Acne Studios, and brought a new level of
industry savvy to the budding operation. By
2007, Our Legacy was a complete collection.
Or something like that. They had shirting and
knitwear, a washed blazer. Enough that the
three felt ready to make one of their first big
investments—to take their brand to a trade
show in Copenhagen. That turned out to be
a good idea.
“We were saying something different,”
Hallin says. “The menswear at the time was
very Dior Homme, Cheap Monday—skinny
black jeans, rock and roll—and we came with
oxfords, plaids, color, rolled-up chinos, and
a wider silhouette. It wasn’t just another
Swedish rock-and-roll brand.”
Our Legacy’s early success wasn’t only in
finding its way out of skinny jeans and zip-up
hoodies. All of menswear was just begin-
ning to look toward a shiny new thing. The
category was undergoing a pretty radical
transformation, recovering from the osten-
tatious and materialistic style of the early
aughts personified by David Beckham, shift-
ing toward more traditional tropes, as per-
sonified by the Kennedys and lumberjacks.
Our Legacy’s aesthetic at the time—“broken
preppy,” some were calling it—fit in perfectly
alongside other fashion brands capitalizing on
the heritage wave, primarily American-based
ones, like Band of Outsiders, Patrik Ervell,
and Engineered Garments. Our Legacy had
the distinction of being well-made and well-
priced, and having a somewhat enigmatic,
European background. It referenced Martin
Margiela as much as Ralph Lauren.
Only the pigeonhole Our Legacy found
itself in didn’t quite fit its ambitions. It cruised
through the first few years on the heritage
wave, building a following among guys who
1 0 4 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
might have otherwise been shopping at J.Crew,
then somewhat abruptly decided to pivot.
“I felt we had so much more to give,” says
Nying.
“So much more to explore,” adds Hallin. “It
came to a point we could do so much more in
terms of aesthetics, in terms of inspiration, we
can blend more worlds.”
By the mid-2010s, men’s fashion had
exploded into a wild-style era that embraced
pattern and texture and color and exaggerated
shapes like never before. Our Legacy was just
one step ahead of this natural progression.
Hallin says the big shift came when they real-
ized they did not have to accept all of mens-
wear’s conventions. They recognized that they
might lose a few of their existing customers,
guys who weren’t ready for transparent silk
shirts. For every one of those they lost, they
picked up a few new ones.
“I don’t actually know how we got through
that period, but we did,” Klarén says. “Now
I think we have a very unique position. ”
When the pandemic closed in, Our Legacy
swiftly downsized and braced for devastating
economic impact. Then when sales started to
pick up—thanks in part to the newly launched
Our Legacy x Stüssy collaboration—Nying,
Hallin, and Klarén recognized it as an oppor-
tunity. “In those moments, the playing field
becomes a little bit more open,” says Hallin.
“It’s easier to operate. It’s not like we think
about, ‘Okay. Let’s take some market share.’
But it’s more like we can establish a little-bit
bigger footprint in the market when these
things happen, because we have our thing.”
the big, bright future for
B A C K AT T H E S T U D I O ,
Our Legacy is already underway. New stores
are a priority: Milan, Paris, New York, Los
Angeles, Tokyo, and Shanghai are all under
consideration. And the women’s collection is
about to undergo a major overhaul. But the
three partners are still figuring out what it will
mean for Our Legacy to be a major player on
the global fashion stage.
“We’ve been a quite small brand for a long
time,” says Klarén. “Now we’ve grown into a
brand that you can count on. The momentum
is with us now and we’re doing well brand-
wise but also financially, which makes it pos-
sible to put the foot on the gas.”
For Our Legacy, putting the foot on the gas
probably won’t mean what it might for other,
more opportunistic fashion brands. “We treat
our brand very carefully,” says Hallin, recall-
ing that when he was coming up, selling out
was the worst thing that a band or an artist
could do. “That’s not a thing anymore. Growth
and success are what’s being worshipped.” So
as fast as Our Legacy sells out of Work Shop
hoodies, don’t expect it to respond to chang-
ing tides of market demand as quickly. (But
do expect more surprising, high-profile proj-
ects—like an upcoming furniture collabora-
tion with Willo Perron on his shape-shifting
Sausage Sofa.)
Nying’s plans for the future of the brand?
“For me, it’s just to elevate the stuff we’re
doing. Maybe it’s cliché,” he says, “but I really
care about the product.”
NOAH JOHNSON is GQ ’s global style director.
C I L L I AN M U RPH Y
C O N T I N U E D F RO M PAG E 62
Irish War of Independence and then one
another in the Irish Civil War. The film is
lush, harrowing, relentless, and transporting.
Murphy has a face that sits cozily at home in
any decade of the 20th century. He is at his
most vital in the ’20s, the ’30s, the ’40s—and
it’s one of the factors that works so convinc-
ingly in Oppenheimer. Matt Damon, for better
or worse, looks like Matt Damon. Emily Blunt,
again for better or worse, looks like Emily
Blunt. Whereas Cillian Murphy looks like
some scientist from 1945.
Murphy and his filmmakers have run this
play several ways in recent years. In Anthropoid
(2016), as a Czechoslovak resistance fighter in
Nazi-occupied Prague. In Free Fire (2016), as an
IRA member caught up in an arms deal gone
horribly wrong. In Dunkirk (2017), as a British
‘shivering soldier’ suffering from PTSD. And,
of course, in Peaky Blinders (2013–2022), as
a World War I hero turned gangster in 1920s
Birmingham. With that face, he can play every
side of the die of the embroiled conflicts of pre-
and postwar Europe. “Cillian’s always laughing
about how he’s perpetually playing people who
are traumatized,” Blunt said. “There must be
something about his face that sort of entices
those kinds of offers.”
The first frame he appears in in Anthropoid,
a moonbeam strikes his cheekbone, like it’s a
plane of alabaster, and the question immedi-
ately pops to mind: Are you a Nazi or the resis-
tance? Are you the good guy or the bad guy—or
both, that “two thing.” The stable and the wild.
The duality. The pull within.
IN DUBLIN, we found ourselves walking
through busy streets, beneath abundant win-
ter sunshine and caustic seagulls. We were
approached by fans at a shocking clip—but also
by sisters of friends.
“I’m not a stalker…” one said, politely.
“Oh, hi, Oona!”
I asked him if he’d sensed that his life had
palpably changed in any way since last sum-
mer, given that a billion dollars’ worth of peo-
ple saw him in practically every frame of one
of the biggest films of all time. “To me, it always
seems to go in waves,” he said. “When Peaky
was at its kind of apex, you’d feel a different
energy around, walking around, a little bit like
I do now—but then it settles down again. It
kind of comes in waves. And then you don’t
have something in the cinema for ages, and
people forget about it. So. It seems to be like
that, and you sort of ride that, and then things
go back to normal.”
With all due respect to the Peaky hive, this
film did seem to go especially wide.
 C IL L I A N M U R P HY C O NT IN UED
“Yes,” he said, laughing. “But you’d be sur-
prised. Peaky is still the thing I get asked most
about in the world.”
As if on cue, Murphy was approached by a
fan on the street who asked for a photo.
“Oh, I don’t do photos,” he said, to a disap-
pointed lad, who nonetheless got 20 seconds of
Murphy’s time to chat.
“Once I started doing that,” he said, “it
changed my life. I just think it’s better to say
hello, and have a little conversation. I tell that
to a lot of people, you know, actor friends of
mine, and they’re just like: I feel so bad. But you
don’t need a photo record of everywhere you’ve
been in a day.”
“There is a culty effervescent kind of wonder
about Cillian,” Blunt said. “I think for someone
as interior as he is, this level of kinetic fame is,
like, horrifying for him. If anyone is not built for
fame, it’s Cillian.”
To make it up to that fan, I asked Murphy
what the status is of a potential Peaky Blinders
film: “There is no status, as of now. So I have
no update. But I’ve always said I’m open to it
if there’s more story. I do love how the show
ended. And I love the ambiguity of it. And I’m
really proud of what we did. But I’m always
open to a good script.”
We passed some young people in dark
dresses and heels, absolutely worse for the
wear. “Look at these guys, out from the night
before,” Murphy said, smiling. I asked him if he
had his days of partying in Dublin, in London.
“I mean, I did, but it was with my friends. I was
never part of any scene—or go to, like, acting
clubs. I would never go to the premiere.… The
idea of going to a premiere that isn’t your own,
seems to me like…”
We passed Trinity College, an occasion to dis-
cuss the breakout Irish series Normal People
and its breakout Irish star Paul Mescal. “He is
the real deal. He is like a true movie star. They
don’t come along that often. But,” Murphy said,
serving the lightest and rarest touch of pride
and swagger, “luckily, they seem mostly to
come from Ireland.”
“It’s a good time,” he added, “to be an Irish
actor, it seems.”
We stopped in at the Kerlin Gallery to see
the show of his sister-in-law, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain.
She and Murphy’s wife were friends in graduate
school in London, and Murphy’s brother met
her while visiting Cillian there. This is his scene.
He walked around admiring the pieces, which
he’d heard about at family functions, but not
yet seen in person.
“Now this work immediately appeals to
me,” he said, “because you can feel it’s pushing
at big, big themes, and to me, that’s what I’ve
always loved. I don’t really go for pure enter-
tainment. I love when it makes you feel a little
bit fucked-up. Not in a horror-genre way, but
in a psychological, existential way. That’s what
I love in all the work that I enjoy and the work
that I try to make.”
Murphy executive-produced the last three
seasons of Peaky Blinders, but had been looking
for a first film to produce. He secured the rights
to Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, a
Booker Prize finalist, and one night on the set
of Oppenheimer, while he and Damon were just
sitting there in the desert, Damon told Murphy
about Damon and Ben Affleck’s as-yet-unan-
nounced new company, Artists Equity, whose
novel financial model is premised on profit
sharing with the crew. Murphy sent them the
book and Artists Equity ultimately financed the
film. “Normally, you’re trying to put together all
these different entities, and then you have all
these points of view on the edit,” Murphy said.
“This was just those guys.”
Small Things Like These centers on an
average man about his age in a small town in
County Wexford who, one Christmas, stumbles
upon a horrifying secret in the local convent—
the so-called Magdalene Laundries, which,
from the 18th century to the 1990s, held thou-
sands of girls and women prisoner in Church
workhouses. I asked Murphy if, with his new
power, it was important to him to tell Irish sto-
ries. Not especially, he said. The only criterion
was: What’s the best story for right now. “Still,”
he said, “it’s a good time to be looking at that
story, because we have distance from what hap-
pened with the Church and everything. But yet
I don’t think we’ve still fully addressed it. So,
if you can make something that’s entertain-
ing and moving, but also asks a few questions
about who we are as a nation, and who we were
as a nation, and how far we’ve come—then
that’s great. But, again, they should happen
after you’ve gone and had a reasonably enter-
taining evening at the cinema.”
Murphy joked at one point that he spent
the actors’ strike at home “eating cheese,” but
what he really did was spend the strike edit-
ing Small Things and overseeing “all the lovely
stuff that we actors never get a look in on.”
(His production company, Big Things Films,
would’ve been called Small Things Films, he
said, except that Small Things suggests “a lack
of ambition, perhaps.”) Small Things will pre-
miere at the Berlin International Film Festival
this month.
One film a year, control, restraint, a hand
firmly on the wheel.
Murphy has a natural propensity to an
analog lifestyle that works well with Nolan,
who doesn’t use email or have a smartphone.
“I aspire to that life,” Murphy said. “I was just
clearing stuff off my phone, but have to keep the
apps for music and music discovery.”
“I still have all my CDs and DVDs and Blu-
Rays,” he said. “I cannot get rid of them. I did
get rid of my VHS, though. I just left them
on the street because nobody wanted them.
I went and brought them to a library and was
like, Look at this pretentious collection of art
films!—and they were like, No thanks, man…”
I asked him if he saw the viral TikTok of
Nolan showing a zoomer how best to project
Oppenheimer. He started laughing. “My son
showed me that. A clash of cultures.”
Working with Nolan can feel like a much-de-
sired retrenchment from modern life. “When
I’m on a Chris set, it does feel a little bit like
a private, intimate laboratory,” he said. “Even
though he works at a tremendous pace, there’s
always room for curiosity and finding things
out, and that’s what making art should be
about, you know? There’s no phones—but also
no announcement: Everybody just knows.
And there’s no chairs. Because he doesn’t sit
down. Sometimes a film set can be like a picnic.
Everyone’s got their chairs and their snacks
and everyone’s texting and showing each other
fucking, you know, emojis or whatever, memes,
which I do know—” he said, referring obliquely
to a meme of Cillian Murphy not knowing what
a meme is. “But why?”
Do you know what Nolan is doing next?
I asked.
“Noooo. But, like, I didn’t know that he was
writing Oppenheimer. We don’t stay in touch
that way.”
It’s like Mission: Impossible. Do the hard
thing together, then sever communication.
“Chris is the smartest person I’ve ever met.
Not just the director stuff, but everything else.”
Nolan had told me that he’d wanted to give
Murphy the role that he would be dogged by
forever—that he would spend the rest of his
career trying to crawl out from under. “And,”
he said, “I think I’ve done it.”
When I put it to Murphy, he took a beat:
“There’s a big, big body of work that I think
people that know know.” I think it was his
modest way of saying: I’ve got a few others too.
Murphy told me he’d heard “one of the
Sydneys”—Lumet or Pollack—once said that
it takes 30 years to make an actor. He believed
that. “I’m 27 years,” he said. “So I’m close.”
AFTER NOLAN hand-delivered the
Oppenheimer script to Murphy and left him
to read in that Dublin hotel room, he made
his way to the Hugh Lane Gallery, and, more
specifically, to the Francis Bacon studio there,
a perfect preservation of the impossibly messy
London studio where the Irish-born painter
had lived and worked for much of his life.
Murphy and Nolan share a love of Bacon—a
towering figure of the 20th century, born in
its first decade, dead in its last. Besides the
reassembled studio, the museum has several
paintings by Bacon—some finished, some
unfinished. In all instances, though, the por-
traits of people—ghoulishly distorted figures—
were rendered unsparingly. Never perfect
representations. Never straight impressions.
But rather an artist’s interpretation of another
being, reconfigured into a stark image. You
can see what might appeal to both a director
of a biopic and his leading man.
That winter weekend, I made the same jour-
ney across the River Liffey that Nolan did, past
a poster for Oppenheimer in a Tower Records
window, past the Garden of Remembrance (for
all who gave their lives for Irish freedom), and
met Murphy at the museum. He had on a black
puffer jacket, a black hoodie, a pair of black
Ray-Bans that had that starburst that mov-
ie-star lenses do when subjected to a flash on a
red carpet. He removed them inside and took a
well-worn path back to the Bacons. “Most peo-
ple don’t know about this place,” he said. “It’s
kind of like a little secret. But I just come here
when I have time to spare in town.”
We looked at Bacons Bacons everywhere. We
talked about the Bacon biography that came
out in 2021. “I love the work,” he said, “but just
the life. That kind of unique relentlessness that
he had as an artist.” I asked if he read actor
biographies. “When I was starting out,” he said.
“I always worry, though, reading them—
because I can’t remember what I did last week....
I often wonder about the self-mythologizing.”
We peered in on the studio itself, every cig-
arette butt and crate of Champagne archived
and put in its place. “Chaos for me breeds
images,” Bacon had said.
M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 1 0 5
 C I L L I A N M U R P HY C O NT IN UED
Do you have a room in your house that looks
like this? I asked.
Murphy laughed. “No, I do have a man room,
a man cave. But it’s incredibly tidy.”
In another room of the museum, we sat
before a looped British TV special on Bacon
from 1985, an hour-long interview with pre-
senter Melvyn Bragg, where the great painter
spits off charisma and wisdom in pithy
responses to the biggest questions an artist
can be asked, all while wearing a perfect black
leather jacket. We sat there quietly together,
until Murphy interjected: “It’s kind of mes-
merizing, isn’t it?”
Before I’d arrived in Dublin, Nolan had told
me that Murphy’s career tends to make sense
if you think of him more as an artist than an
actor—as you would a painter or a musician.
That his filmography isn’t about a line going
up or down, so much as filled with distinct
periods of development. It helps explain
the approach to the work. How patient and
restrained. How clear the point of view. An
act of accretion rather than explosiveness
and volatility. So unshaken by the things that
rock the boat for so many actors. It’s the clar-
ity. The authenticity. The answer to the ques-
tion: When you’re tested again and again,
what is there? Who is there? Here is a man—a
47-year-old, who could play 27 with the right
light and 67 with the right makeup—who is
probably going to win the Oscar for best actor,
but whose mind couldn’t be farther from the
chatter of his industry and the noise noise
noise noise. At one point, I asked him if he
feels like he’s uniquely well-positioned to play
CA N THE SAUD I S B U Y S O C C E R ?
C O N T I N U E D F RO M PAG E 8 9
Saudi Arabia executed 196 people in 2022, a
reported 30-year-high. Anyway. The brands
are all here, and business is booming.
B A C K ATAl-Awwal Park, warm-ups are fin-
ished and kickoff is approaching. Overhead,
floodlights stain the night sky purple as fans
trickle into the half-empty seats.
The turnout is a concern. By mid-season,
the SPL project was already being dogged by
reports of dire fan attendance: In October,
Al-Ettifaq, with its expensive cast of inter-
national signings, played Al-Riyadh in front
of just 696 fans. When Al-Riyadh played
Al-Khaleej in Riyadh, only 144 people turned
up. Explanations given so far include ticketing
problems and the league’s new schedules con-
flicting with prayer times. Tonight’s opponent,
1 0 6 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4
roles of middle-age—if Oppenheimer feels like
the first film of what could be the strongest
stretch of his career. “I really don’t know,” he
said. “I really haven’t thought about it.”
Here, then, was another thing Murphy
had seemingly figured out—consciously or
not. Almost all religions, coaches, gurus, and
enlightened friends tend to offer the same
advice: Don’t lose yourself in the past, don’t
fixate on the future, but rather focus six inches
in front of your nose, and on the Now that you
can control. “I really am kind of, like, patho-
logically unsentimental about things,” he said.
“I just move forward very quickly.” The past
wasn’t a problem because he couldn’t remem-
ber it—or wouldn’t romanticize it. The future
wasn’t a concern because he didn’t like to
plan too far out. And so: the one film on the
horizon; the one song on the radio or the one
painting on the wall. He was, in this way, an
authentic presentist. Or, less abstractly, just a
good listener, a good see-er, a good scene part-
ner, a good person to have dinner with.
There, in the museum, we sat and we sat,
watching the Bacon interview as though there
was nowhere else to be (because there really
wasn’t) and nothing else to think about (what
more was there than how an artist’s life might
be lived?).
Murphy broke the silence. “Did you ever
hear this theory that Eno has? About the
farmers and the cowboys? There’s two types of
artists—there’s the farmers and the cowboys.
The farmers, like in his studio for example”—
he said, gesturing to the screen—“he’s mostly
kind of doing the same thing, refining and
Al-Okhdood, has a simpler excuse: Its home
city, Najran, is a 10-hour drive across the des-
ert, so it’s perhaps not surprising that I don’t
see a single away fan all evening. Still, the seats
are about 90 percent full as the announcer
reads out the teams. When Ronaldo emerges
from the tunnel, the place goes wild.
Everyone is here for Him. “All my friends,
even those not interested in football, now
they’re interested, because we have Cristiano,”
Ghaida Khaled, the Al-Nassr fan, says. Khaled
being here at all is still new; women have been
able to attend soccer games in the kingdom
only since 2018.
“Before, we couldn’t come to the football,”
explains Salpy Ioshkhasdjian, another fan,
here with her 14-year-old daughter. They’re
Armenian Lebanese, but Ioshkhasdjian has
lived in the kingdom for 17 years; her daugh-
ter has signed for Al-Nassr’s tae kwon do team.
Not that long ago, being a professional athlete
would have been an impossible career path for
a teenage girl in Saudi. “Now we can do what-
ever we want. And sure, there are rules, but we
can do everything—we can drive, drink coffee
outdoors, smoke, everything.”
The game, inevitably, is not particularly
competitive. Al-Nassr score in the 13th min-
ute, and dominate without producing many
scoring opportunities. Ronaldo mostly walks
around offside, with the calculated lethargy
of an apex predator. But when he does come
to life—a deceptive run behind the defense, a
refining and refining the same thing. And the
cowboys, who go off, they’re like prospectors,
that go off and do mad work. Eno puts himself
in the second bracket, ’cause he’s such an inno-
vator, with the music and the production and
all of that. Or somebody like Bowie, constantly,
constantly reinventing. Neither one is better,
it’s just a different way of making work.”
Which do you fall into? I asked.
“Definitely the cowboy, I think. But there
are actors that just play similar parts, versions
of themselves all the time. Again, I don’t think
either one is better.”
Do you think that sometimes an actor falls
into the other category by accident when their
public persona intersects with—or eclipses—
the work? I asked.
“Perhaps. Yeah. I’m sure that’s the case.
Yeah.”
He sat back and sunk into the film again.
Giggling at some of the things that Bacon said
and did. “There’s a few things he says that
I always think apply to our work. ‘The job of
the artist is always to deepen the mystery.’ ”
Provocative movies. Provocative perfor-
mances. No easy answers—but perhaps a few
new questions.
Don’t give it all away. Don’t even give most of
it away. Retrench. Be clear. With yourself, but
not necessarily with others. Let the fame wave
pass. Live by the sea.
He said it again: “Deepen the mystery. That’s
it, isn’t it?”
DANIEL RILEY is GQ ’s global content
development director.
deft flicked pass—his superiority is obvious.
Champions League teams may no longer
want him, but here anyone can see he’s the
best player on the pitch.
Halftime comes and goes. The Game of
Thrones theme plays throughout the stadium.
The crowd is getting a little distracted. As a
spectacle it’s all extremely polite, delivered
with broadcast polish. Watching on TV, you’d
struggle to tell it apart from a midweek game
in any European league, except minor details
like Al-Nassr’s sleeve sponsor being a brand
of camel’s milk.
Then, in the 77th minute, Ronaldo latches
onto a free ball in the penalty box, and fires
in a goal from a tight angle. He leaps into his
customary celebration, and the whole place
erupts in unison:
“SIIIIUUU!”
Drums. Phones are out. Everybody’s
bouncing. Then, a few minutes later, he
scores again, an absolute golazo: The
Al-Okhdood goalkeeper is caught off his line
when the ball bobbles loose, and Ronaldo, 35
yards out, hits a perfect arcing lob over four
opposing players to put Al-Nassr up 3-0. The
stadium loses their minds. Within minutes,
highlights of the goal are trending worldwide
on X. This is what a reported $200 million a
year gets you.
After the final whistle, there’s a festival
atmosphere. A few rows below me, a father is
carrying his little girl, waving a flag together.
 CA N T HE SAUD I S B U Y S O C C ER? C O N T IN UED
Everyone is proud—of Ronaldo, of the
league, of their country. Everyone thanks the
crown prince by name, and says how grateful
they are. For Saudis, at least, this all seems to
be working.
BREAD AND CIRCUSES. That’s what the
Roman poet Juvenal wrote, around AD 100,
of the means that the emperors used to pac-
ify their subjects. Spending time at Al-Awwal
Park, I can’t help but think of the Colosseum,
and its menagerie of imported delights. Are
you not entertained?
Here’s the thing about sportswashing:
People act like Saudi Arabia is investing bil-
lions of dollars in sports as an apology, a way of
distracting the world when the regime silences
dissidents. Maybe it isn’t about that at all.
Maybe it really is that buying up the world’s soc-
cer stars is a way to bring in tourists and foreign
investment, and make the kingdom even more
money. The dissidents, after all, are still being
imprisoned, as brutally as ever. Maybe it’s say-
ing to a populace of 32 million Saudis who have
watched pro-democracy uprisings on social
media: We’ll give you all that you could ever
possibly want—except freedom. Everything in
the kingdom is new, everything can be remade,
just not the people in charge. Maybe it’s just
that a load of princes with limitless money got
bored of buying gigayachts and da Vincis and
thought it’d be fun to have a sports league.
And maybe for a lot of Saudis that doesn’t
matter. When you’ve come as far as they have,
as quickly, this all must indeed seem like a mir-
acle. And if they felt any other way, they cer-
tainly wouldn’t be reckless enough to tell me.
“It’s a country that the world has been call-
ing on to change and open up, and now that
it has, everybody’s knocking it. You can’t have
it both ways,” Nohra, the SPL’s chief operat-
ing officer, tells me over lunch on the grounds
of At-Turaif, a beautiful 18th-century ruin
recently remade into a shiny new tourism
complex. “They get no credit for the transfor-
mation that they’ve been through already.”
But then, the depth of that transformation is
the whole point. In December, Turkey’s football
federation was scheduled to host its Super Cup
final between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in
Riyadh—at Al-Awwal, in fact—but postponed
the game at the last minute, after the Saudis
reportedly refused to let players wear shirts and
carry signs referring to Atatürk, the country’s
founder. (Atatürk being the guy who brought
democracy to Turkey.) Some changes happen
more slowly than others.
big experiment will work
W H E T H E R T H E S P L’ S
long-term is anybody’s guess. A few years back,
China got big into soccer, and even signed a
few superstars, only to lose interest and see
most of them move back a couple of years later.
That could still happen here. It’s unlikely.
If anything, this is only the beginning. In
October, FIFA announced that Saudi Arabia
is the sole country bidding to host the 2034
World Cup. Prior to the announcement,
FIFA president Gianni Infantino was photo-
graphed hanging out with MBS at a boxing
match and at the World Cup in Qatar. (Shortly
after Saudi Arabia’s bid was announced,
The Times of London reported that FIFA was
negotiating a new sponsorship deal worth up
to $100 million a year with the state-backed
oil company Saudi Aramco; when reached
by GQ , FIFA declined to comment, citing a
policy not to confirm or deny commercial
discussions.) Even if Michael Emenalo can’t
persuade them to join, the superstars will
end up in Saudi eventually.
The Saudi government has already
announced plans to build several new stadi-
ums, and move one of its clubs to Neom, the
crown prince’s new $500 billion megacity
project that will, among other things, suppos-
edly be powered entirely by renewable energy
and staffed by robots. With that kind of invest-
ment, it’s hard to see how other leagues stand
a chance. “It’s a great advantage,” Nohra tells
me. “The audacity of the whole project is that
we can deliver what we set our minds to. We’re
not hindered by virtually anything.”
Looked at another way: Perhaps the SPL and
soccer are perfect for each other. Players have
always followed the highest bidder. Few really
care as much for their clubs as they’d like us to
believe. Think about it: You live a hermetic life,
shuttling back and forth between matches and
training, coming out in public for 90 minutes
at a time. Here, you can do so in air-conditioned
luxury, away from the prying eyes of magazine
journalists, and retire at 30 with enough money
to buy a small country. Homosexual acts are
illegal in Saudi Arabia, but we’re talking about a
sport where out of 2,500 or so active male play-
ers in the top-five European leagues, only one
has felt able to come out as gay.
When Emenalo first started persuading
players to come to Saudi last summer, he
says, it was a challenge. These days, players
WhatsApp one another asking how they can
come. We are talking before the January trans-
fer window, but Emenalo says he has “at least
seven” superstars waiting to sign. “They’ve
seen the level [of competition] and they’ve
now heard from their friends that life is good
and that there’s nothing to worry about,”
Emenalo says. “So their concern now is, Did
we miss the gravy train?”
“To be honest,” Mitrović, the Al-Hilal
striker, tells me. “This country, for me, I think
is the future.”
After the game at Al-Awwal Park, the media
hang around in the mixed zone, hoping to
speak to Ronaldo. A couple of Al-Okhdood
players come out to talk to the cameras. Al-
Nassr’s all-stars, however, stay in the changing
room. Despite the players’ contracts, nobody
at the Pro League seems to have required them
to give postgame interviews, so they don’t.
When Ronaldo eventually does appear, in his
boxers, he disappears down another tunnel
just as quickly. A disaffected crew member
from the state broadcaster grumbles, “No one
ever stops.”
Outside, the air is getting cold. Sand is
blowing in from the desert, dusting the
departing traffic. A crowd of young fans have
assembled around the exit, waiting for the
team bus, hoping to get a glimpse at Ronaldo.
But it’s too late. He came in a private car, and
has already gone.
OLIVER FRANKLIN - WALLIS is the features
editor for British GQ .
AD D I TI O N AL C RE D I TS
Page 38. Brynn Wallner portrait: Ava Van Osdal.
All watch portraits (on wrists): courtesy of Brynn
Wallner. Audemars Piguet Royal Oak: courtesy
of Audemars Piguet.
Page 40. Ginny Wright portrait: courtesy of
Audemars Piguet; watch portraits (on
wrists): Katherine Wright/courtesy of Ginny
Wright. Rebecca Ross portrait: courtesy
of Christie’s; watch portrait (on wrist): courtesy
of Rebecca Ross.
Page 41. Lauren Harwell Godfrey portrait: Tricia
Turner; watch portraits (on wrist): courtesy of
Lauren Harwell Godfrey. Bulgari Serpenti
Tubogas: courtesy of Bulgari.
Page 67. 1940s hunting jacket, Umbro soccer
smock, and Hermès Haut à Courroies 50 cm:
courtesy of Gauthier Borsarello. My Own Private
Idaho: courtesy of Everett Collection/Fine Line
Features. Liam Gallagher: Patrick Ford/Getty
Images. Serge Gainsbourg: Ginies/Sipa.
Pages 68–69. Emporio Armani puzzle cube, Polo
by Ralph Lauren x Rolex polo shirt, Cafe
Nordstrom hat, 2002 Mercedes-Benz Fashion
Week x Stephen Sprouse T-shirt, and Saks Fifth
Avenue ashtray: courtesy of Bijan Shahvali for
Intramural. “How to Win at the Thrift Store”:
courtesy of Matthew Schnipper.
Page 70. Gorpcore products (8): courtesy of
Brian Davis/Wooden Sleepers.
Pages 72–73. Emily Adams Bode Aujla/Brimfield
Antique Flea Market (7): courtesy of Emily Adams
Bode Aujla. Hiroki Nakamura/Toji Temple Flea
Market (5): courtesy of Keisuke Fukamizu. Pierre
Mahéo/Saint-Ouen Flea Market (5): courtesy of
Pierre Mahéo. Chris Gibbs/Rose Bowl Flea
Market (5): courtesy of Chris Gibbs.
Page 74. Helmut Lang Bondage bomber jacket,
spring 2004: courtesy of Petros Toufexis for
David Casavant Archive. Yohji Yamamoto winter
1996 Prisoner pants: courtesy of Etienne Bolduc
for My Clothing Archive. Jean Paul Gaultier, Mona
Lisa Tattoo top, spring 1995: courtesy of Kyle
Julian Skye for Middleman Store. Vivienne
Westwood Safety Pin necklace: courtesy of
Johnny Valencia of Pechuga Vintage.
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M A R C H 2 0 2 4 G Q . C O M 1 0 7
 FINAL SHOT

For our story on Ricky

Martin, see page 76.
ST YLIST, BR ANDON TAN.

Pants by Emporio
Armani. Towel by Polo
Ralph Lauren Home.
Necklace (top) by
Shay Jewelry.
Necklace (bottom)
by Luis Morais.

1 0 8 G Q . C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 4 P H O T O G R A P H B Y E R I C R A Y D A V I D S O N